IPL 9 Match 11 Review: Quinton de Kock pummels RCB in their own backyard

The Delhi Daredevils registered their second consecutive win in the tournament after they beat the formidable Royal Challengers Bangalore by 7 wicket at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. An exemplary display of batting from South African wonder boy Quinton de Kock (108 from 51 balls) who struck the first century of this season marshaled DD to a comprehensive victory.

RCB, after being put into bat, set a target of 192 to chase with the help wonderful knocks from Virat Kohli (79 from 48 balls), AB de Villiers (55 from 33 balls) and Shane Watson (33 from 19 balls).

In reply, the chase began on a bad note for DD as they lost Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson cheaply before the end of the powerplay. However, Quinton de Kock and Karun Nair then partnered to get hold of things. The pair added a match-winning 134 run stand, the highest for the Daredevils, to ensure a smooth sailing. De Kock, right from the start kept the run rate healthy with his aggressive approach. The stability provided by Karun Nair only gave him more freedom to smash the bowlers.

None of the RCB bowler could do anything significant and were rendered ineffective. Nair was also getting runs quickly under the shadow of De Kock. Soon, the matched completely slipped into SRH’s favor as De Kock moved closer to the century. He eventually achieved the feat in the 18th over consuming the 48 balls.

Unfortunately, he could not stand in the middle till the glory moment as he was dismissed in the following over by Shane Watson. Only 8 required off 11 balls at that moment. The remaining handful of runs were soon knocked off easily to script the highest successful chase for the Delhi Daredevils.

Earlier, Chris Gayle’s continued to be silent with the bat as he was dismissed for his second consecutive single digit score. But, his early departure did not hamper the RCB plans as the dynamic pair of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli tore apart the opposition. The duo put on an exhibition of highly entertaining attacking cricket, putting together a 106 runs for the 2nd wicket. The ball kept racing towards the fence on a regular basis as fours and sixes became sort of mandatory.

DD skipper Zaheer Khan relied on his pacers during the powerplay where RCB made 63 runs. Spinner Pawan Negi and Amit Mishra were quickly brought in after the powerplay with an hope to slow down the run rate. However, their introduction had no effect as run kept pouring in. The home team cruised past the 100 run mark in the 11th over. But, unfortunately, the pair was separated in the following over as de Villiers (55 from 33 balls) lost his wicket to Carlo Brathwaite.

Shane Watson (33 from 19 balls) then continued the firework with the unstoppable Virat Kohli as the RCB looked to be rocketing towards a 200 plus total. However, Mohammad Shami, after been plundered for 15 runs in his first over, made a good comeback to snap up the dangerous Watson in the 17th over. The same over saw the pocket size brute force Sarfraz Khan getting run out.

After bleeding runs at the start, the Sunrisers did a marvelous job in the death overs, conceding just 27 runs to restrict RCB to an under-200 score.

Brief Scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 191/5 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 79; M Shami 2/34)

Delhi Daredevils: 192/3 in 19.1 overs (Quinton de Kock 108; Shane Watson 2/25)

Man of the Match: Quinton de Kock

Also, Read – IPL 9, Match 11: RCB v DD – 5 Talking Points