IPL 2019: Marcus Stoinis says batting with AB de Villiers made things easier

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team has finally registered their first ever win in the ongoing IPL 2019 tournament. After six straight losses to their name and zero points, RCB showed immense heart and passion to finally gain two points by defeating Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on April 13, 2019.

AB de Villiers won the Man of the Match award for his amazing half-century, while Marcus Stoinis added a valuable 16-ball 28 unbeaten runs to ensure RCB don’t falter at the final moment. RCB had experienced two last over defeats against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) but the experienced De Villiers didn’t let that happen again and along with Stoinis and Virat Kohli, led RCB past the finish line.

The more comforting factor is batting with ABD, says Stoinis

De Villiers (59*) and Virat (67) added 85 runs to lay the foundation of RCB’s chase, which was finished with Stoinis’ quick innings. “I am pretty familiar with this ground; I have played here for three years. The more comforting factor is batting with AB de Villiers, that makes it easier. We needed it, it’s good get to two points and get ourselves started,” Stoinis was quoted as saying during the post-match press-conference by Sportstar.

Stoinis also revealed that De Villiers asked him to keep his head straight and keep things simple, as he came to join him in the middle after Virat got out. “Make sure to keep head straight, watch the ball, keep it simple and then once you get in think about which balls you want to target,” Stoinis revealed the advice of his senior partner.

Stoinis was also full of praise for the RCB bowlers, saying that they stopped Chris Gayle, who made 99*, from making runs in the middle overs. “Make sure you keep coming back and get into a contest with every single ball and that’s what our seam bowlers did, they did particularly well. They got hit early but all of them had good spells later and then our spinners controlled through the middle overs as there was a little bit of turn,” said Stoinis.

“We are not thinking about finals and that sort of thing..it is just about each game now, we can’t afford to get too far ahead of ourselves, it is good to get started, we will take next game as it comes and hopefully we will win few on trot..it’s still a long season,” Stoinis signed off.

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