South African batter Janneman Malan heaped rich praise on his opening partner Quinton de Kock after the win against India in the second ODI in Paarl on Friday (January 21).
South Africa thrashed Team India by 7 wickets in the second ODI in Paarl to take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series. Chasing the target of 288 runs, Proteas openers Quinton de Kock and Janneman Malan stood tall for their team and helped them chase the target with 11 balls to spare.
Quinton de Kock gave a flying start to South Africa in their chase as he took charge against Bhuvneshwar Kumar and smashed him all around that park. The southpaw smashed 78 runs off just 66 deliveries and also was a part of a 132-run opening partnership with Janneman Malan, who scored 91 runs.
Addressing the press conference after the second ODI against India, South African batter Janneman Malan said that Quinton de Kock made it easy for him in the start and he wanted to give him as much strike as possible. He hailed the wicketkeeper-batter as one of the best batters in the world.
“Quinton made it easy for me at the start. I just tried to give him as much strike as possible because I just wanted to let him go do his thing. He played a couple of ridiculous shots, which are good signs. He is one of the best batters in the world when he gets going, so it was good to bat with him,” Janneman Malan said.
While talking about facing Indian bowlers, Malan said that it was a good outing for him against them. He talked about the challenge of facing visitors’ bowling line-up, saying that it was good to have a challenge from them.
“Guys like me who have seen them bowling at IPL and international level. So it was good to go out against them. You need more time to face guys like those because you need to get the rhythm of each one of them.
“So it was a kinda challenge for me to do it in the first and second game. It's obviously not the best bowling conditions but they are a world-class team and bowlers so it's good to have a challenge from them," he said.
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While talking about South Africa’s batting partnerships, Janneman Malan said that batters of his side are coming in with good plans and good intent, which is a good sign for them.
"We were happy to have two hundreds in the previous game, and maybe we could have had me or Quinny getting to a hundred, but I'm very proud of the partnerships we had.
“We had a hundred partnership and two 50 partnerships, which means the batters are coming in with good plans and good intent and building nice partnerships to make it easier for each other. It's a very good sign,"he concluded.
South Africa and India will now face each other in dead rubber third ODI in Cape Town on Sunday (23rd January).
(ANI inputs)
