South Africa opener Quinton de Kock went ballistic in the second T20I of the three-T20I series vs West Indies. De Kock reached his maiden T20I century from just 43 deliveries at SuperSport Park, Centurion on March 26. This is the fastest T20I century by a batter against West Indies.
The previous record belonged to former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis, India’s KL Rahul and New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips. Du Plessis reached his T20I century from just 46 balls at Johannesburg in 2015. Rahul hit his maiden T20I fifty against West Indies at Lauderhill in 2016 whereas Phillips did it in at Mount Maunganui.
De Kock lost his wicket to Raymon Reifer. The southpaw scored 100 runs from 44 deliveries. His whirlwind knock was studded with nine fours and eight sixes. He shared a 152-run opening partnership with Reeza Hendricks from just 65 deliveries.
Earlier, De Kock reached his half-century from just 15 deliveries. This is the fastest half-century for a South Africa batter. De Kock and Hendricks used the fielding restrictions well. They combined to break the T20I world record for highest powerplay score. The duo scored 102 runs from the powerplay overs to push West Indies on the back foot in run chase of 259.
South Africa ended up chasing down the total with seven balls to spare. This is the highest run chase in the history of T20I cricket. The broke Australia's record of highest T20I run chase against New Zealand created in 2018.
“Quite special. Just he did what Reeza does. It was quite special out there. Just pick the right options, just give our side a bit of hope and that is what we needed. Playing at Centurion, we know we can get a lot of runs here. The ball travels here quite a bit. We knew we could catch up here and especially with the nature of the wicket. It was quite a road out there. (On scoring his first T20I ton) Quite special, I have been searching for it for a while. We don't play too much T20I cricket at Centurion but to do that at my home ground was quite special,” the wicketkeeper-batter said in the post-match presentation.
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