IPL: It Is A Collective Failure, Says Duminy

Despite Delhi Daredevils' forgettable performance in IPL 7, one man who stands tall amidst the rubble is JP Duminy. Duminy, who is DD's leading run scorer with 357 runs in 12 matches, has accepted that in spite of having some very good players in the team, it was their failure to perform as a unit which hurt them the most.

With lot of talk centred on Duminy's own batting position, the South African allrounder revealed that the team always showed faith in his capabilities and he was enjoying the responsibility. "I have enjoyed it all. I have enjoyed finishing games here as it is not something I have done too often at the international level. It was nice for me to get that role and do well to justify it. I do take a lot of confidence out of it," Duminy was quoted as saying by iplt20.com. Duminy's comments came after being probed about Gary Kirsten's insistence on the batsman coming down the order to finish games.

DD succumbed to their seventh successive defeat on Monday evening, losing to Kings XI Punjab by four wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. Duminy, however, chose to talk about the positives from the last night game when he said, "Today seeing Dinesh Karthik and Kevin Pietersen do as well as they did, was great. We will be the first ones to admit that we haven't performed to the best of our abilities."

He also refused to put blame on any single person or reason, when asked to put on a finger on what went wrong. "It is a very difficult question to answer. It has been very disappointing to have such a dismal season. As you mentioned, we have some very good players, but we haven't fired as a group. Our batting and bowling hasn't quite clicked simultaneously in a game, which has resulted in our downfall," Duminy said. "But tonight, I thought we fought hard and took the game to the last over from a position where they needed only seven runs an over to win. To fight back from there was a good sign, and that's all we ask off ourselves in the last three games. We cannot control the results, but we can give our best in all the remaining games."

After posting 164 for 7 in their 20 overs courtesy Dinesh Karthik's 44-ball 69, DD made KXIP sweat in the chase, but lost the tie in the final over of the match. Duminy insisted that they would like to go on a high and try their best in the remaining games.

"Even though this season has been really bad for us, we can still win the remaining two games and go out on a high. We have, not for a second, taken things for granted. We know we are privileged to be here, playing in this tournament and representing the Delhi Daredevils. And it's our responsibility to put in the good performances," he said.