CHENNAI: Quinton de Kock's classy 81 runs (56b, 8x4, 5x6) came in handy for Lucknow Super Giants to post 181/5 in 20 overs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.
De Kock was in his element from the word go as he was able to strike the ball with relish. He was enjoying his game as runs were coming from the meat of the blade. De Kock struck Mayank Dagar for a four to the long-off fence and registered his 22nd IPL fifty. Towards the end, Nicholas Pooran made a quick fire 40 not out off just 21 balls to upset all the calculations of RCB.
Well set for a century, De Kock threw away his wicket as he played a rash shot in order to up the run rate as wickets were falling at the other end regularly. De Kock failed to connect a full toss from Topley and miscued it to Dagar at long off.
Put in to bat, Lucknow had a good start with De Kock and captain KL Rahul going hammer and tongs on the RCB attack. De Kock was aggressive of the duo as he could pick the length early and carted all the RCB bowlers be it Reece Topley, Yash Dayal, Md Siraj all over the park. With De Kock in an aggressive mood, Rahul decided to give good support at the other end.
Once again, Rahul failed to convert his start into a big score as he was done in by a change of pace. Maxwell's introduction did the trick for RCB. Rahul mis-timed a pull shot off Maxwell and Dagar at covers grabbed up the offering with glee. But de Kock went about his job in a professional manner.
A six of Siraj, which had grace written over it was perhaps the shot of the evening. The South African whacks a short delivery outside off stump, by getting slightly closer to the ball and carts it flat over mid-wicket. Soon after, Rahul's dismissal Devdutt Padikkal too perished without making much noise. Thereafter, De Kock and Marcus Stoinis played with a lot of understanding and kept the scoreboard ticking. They waited for the right ball to attack and were harsh on the RCB fast bowlers, taking them to 181/5.