Bengaluru, October 17: Quinton de Kock, who made swashbuckling unbeaten 78 off just balls in Mumbai Indians' comprehensive eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 32 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 says it is too early to talk about play-off chances as he backs his team to play according to its strength.
At the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Friday (October 16) night, South African wicketkeeper-batsman De Kock was in a belligerent mood as he fashioned his team's easy win which also helped them to the move to the top of the IPL 2020 table.
The left-hander was particularly severe on Prasidh Krishna, hitting two of his three maximums in a costly seventh over in his innings which propelled him to the top-10 list in the highest run getters of IPL 2020.
IPL 2020: Quinton de Kock moves into top 10 list of highest run scorers
With six wins from eight matches, defending champions MI look well set to enter the play-offs, though De Kock does not want to talk about it now.
"The preparations for play-offs haven't started yet. It's about taking one game at a time, whatever happens, we've to keep it simple and we need to play to our strengths. Whether we qualify for the play-offs or not, that's not in our hands but playing good cricket is something we can control," De Kock said in the post-match press conference.
IPL POINTS TABLE | FIXTURES/RESULTS
MI's next match is against the struggling Kings XI Punjab at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday (October 18).
KXIP are languishing at the bottom of the table with just two wins from eight matches. Both their victories have come against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
De Kock revealed that not much planning goes into every game and that MI just back themselves to play according to its strengths.
"We know what're our strengths. It's a matter of doing what we've been doing. In our team we've a lot of experience and it's just a matter of doing the right things on the field," added De Kock who has amassed three half-centuries from his last four innings in IPL 2020.