The manner of defeat could leave one scarred for lifetime but it took Quinton de Kock “only a day or two” to recover from South Africa’s galling defeat to New Zealand in the World Cup semifinal last month.
Fortitude will be an invaluable ally as the left-handed wicketkeeper batsmen seeks to bring success to his Indian Premier League side Delhi Daredevils.
“You can’t dwell on the past. If we lose in the final here, I’ll be over it in a few days and focus on the next thing,” de Kock told a media gathering on Sunday.
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Considering the insufficient displays by Daredevils and the 22-year-old in the past, it would be helpful to move on. After all, the Delhi franchise finished bottom of the league table in the past two seasons. de Kock featured in seven matches for the side in 2014, scoring only 153 runs but no fifties.
“Some of us don’t have too much patience to work around singles. Some of us actually enjoy hitting sixes all the time. T20 is a nice little change for me. More for the batsmen than bowlers, though,” said the South African in a lighter vein.
However, de Kock is yet to learn whether his wicketkeeping services will be required by the side. Daredevils have the option of picking C.M. Gautam or Bharat Srikar for that role.
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Regarding the individual and collective plans for the upcoming season, de Kock suggested that past failures would not bear heavily on the Daredevils’ fortunes.
“This year we got nothing to lose. We are just going to go out there and come hard at every team.
“We’ll see where it takes us.”
According to de Kock, a bad start won’t cause lasting damage. “It’s not how we start, it’s how we finish. Even though it’s nice to have a good start, it’s important to finish on a high,” he added.