He himself knows a thing or two about batting in the end overs and Delhi Daredevils' J P Duminy says he has taken tips from his South teammate A B de Villiers, who is considered one of the best finishers in the game today.
Delhi Daredevils found themselves in tatters before Duminy's brilliant unbeaten half century took them to a decent 145 for four in their IPL campaign opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore here yesterday. However, his knock went in vain as Yuvraj Singh inspired RCB to a comfortable eight-wicket win with a 29-ball 52.
Later, talking about finishers, Duminy was all praise for his national teammate.
"I have taken a tip or two from A B de Villiers. He is an outstanding player and has done the job many times for South Africa and for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. So you can only learn from someone like that," Duminy said.
"And it is always great to be a part of the team he is playing in. Unfortunately, we got to play against him this year, but it is always exciting," he added.
His innings might not have helped Delhi post a win but Duminy was happy to have scored runs first up.
"It is always good to get some runs. It is a new franchise and you want to perform for them. Unfortunately, we could not get a win, but we put up a good fight," Duminy told IPL's official website after the win.
Having walked out to bat with Delhi tottering at 17 for three in five overs, Duminy stitched an unbeaten 110-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Ross Taylor.
"We had lost a lot of wickets up front and our aim out there was to build a partnership and not give away our wickets easily. We did just that and set a competitive total of 145. But unfortunately, there were a couple of errors on the field and other things, which did not go our way.
