Quinton de Kock blames fielders for the loss

The Delhi Daredevils faced a certain upset when the Kings XI Punjab defeated them at Mohali last night by 9 runs. The Delhi Daredevils opener Quinton de Kock has defended his bowlers after the match but blamed the fielding errors for the loss.

At one stage of the game, the Delhi Daredevils were cruising towards a comfortable win with openers de Kock and Sanju Samson batting with flair. The wicket of de Kock saw a slump in run rate and suddenly the wickets fell in clusters.

Earlier in the day, the Kings XI batsmen took a heavy toll on the Daredevils bowlers and hit them for 81 runs in the last seven overs, and taking their score to 181 in 20 overs. The South African wicketkeeper, however, feels that the loss cannot be blamed on the bowlers but the fielders. “I’m sure we gave a lot of runs away, but I think our bowling was fine. We were just a little bit sloppy in the field,” the Daredevils opener quoted in a media interaction.

“It was a good wicket, and other teams bat well also. We would like to bowl them out for 120 every time but that can’t happen,” he added further.

Citing at which point did the Daredevils lose the plot, Quinton de Kock said it was towards the death overs that it became hard to score. He, however, credited the Kings XI Punjab bowlers Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma for bowling excellently in the death overs. Mohit Sharma gave away just 3 runs in the penultimate over. “Ya, I think that (death overs) was kind of where we lost it a little bit. With the new ball, it was quite nice to play and then towards the end of the game, it got a lot harder (to score),” he explained.

“Obviously they bowled pretty well also. We tried our hand but Mohit and Sandeep bowled well and to their fields. They also hit their yorkers. But saying that, we were also in a good position at that stage. It happens I guess,” de Kock praised the KXIP bowlers.

Talking about the injuries and why key players are rested at the crucial stage of the tournament, the 23-year old wicket keeper said it is just a preventive measure by the team management. “We’ve played a lot of cricket lately, so they just needed some time on the physio bed. We are only halfway through our campaign at this moment, so just making sure we don’t have any injuries at the wrong times,” the South African conceded.

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