De Kock powers Lucknow to 176-7 against Kolkata

Quinton de Kock en route his 50

On a pitch that gets harder to score on as the ball gets older and slower bowlers come into picture, it's crucial to have a strong start as a batting unit. Lucknow Super Giants put that theory into practical brilliantly in their league game against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the MCA Stadium here on Saturday. Quinton de Kock and Deepak Hooda's ultra-aggressive approach yielded them 66 runs in the Powerplay, and eventually helped them get to 176-7 after being put in to bat.

At the time of going to press, KKR were 55-4 in nine overs. It was the complete dominance of the De Kock-Hooda partnership in the Powerplay. Once KL Rahul was run-out without facing a ball in the first over, Hooda took the charge to the KKR attack straightaway. With KKR's main strike bowler Umesh Yadav absent due to injury, De Kock and Hooda knew that going hard in the Powerplay against a relatively inexperienced KKR bowling attack was the way to go.

Hooda went after Shivam Mavi, hitting him for back-to-back fours off the fourth and fifth ball of his innings. De Kock then clobbered Tim Southee for two fours and a six in the next over to make his intentions clear. KKR bowlers were guilty of bowling back of length close to De Kock's body, and the South African was happy to smack them in and over the mid-wicket fence with ease. In all, all the three sixes and three of the four boundaries that De Kock hit were in the square-leg, mid-wicket region.

De Kock's heroics enabled Lucknow to race to 66 by the end of Powerplay, their second best in the tournament so far. De Kock himself scored 44 of them. Their highest was 73 against the Chennai Super Kings.