ICC World Cup 2023: Scoring three hundreds in five innings is pretty special, says Duminy on de Kock

Aiden Markram, the South Africa stand-in captain for its back-to-back wins in Mumbai, stressed that de Kock is valued by the group much more than his exploits on the field.

South Africa’s Quinton de Kock celebrates after scoring century during ICC Cricket World Cup Match against Bangladesh. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

“DE KOCK Please don’t retire after this World Cup.”

A spectator in the MCA Pavilion at the Wankhede Stadium held a hand-written poster during Tuesday’s Men’s Cricket World Cup tie between South Africa and Bangladesh.

Considering the dream run that Quinton de Kock has had in the World Cup so far, calls for de Kock to reverse his decision to retire from ODIs after the World Cup could get louder after Sunday’s Rugby World Cup final.

Now that de Kock has topped the run-scoring charts, thanks to his three hundreds in five innings, including Tuesday’s record-breaking 174, the retirement talk has perhaps taken a back-seat, at least for the South Africa change-room.

“It’s easy to score a hundred and then sort of take a back seat, but every single day that he comes to training and the games that he has played so far, you know, scoring three hundreds in five innings is a pretty special effort,” Jean-Paul Duminy, South Africa’s batting coach, said on Tuesday night.

De Kock’s record run

# De Kock’s 174 against Bangladesh is the highest score by a wicketkeeper in a World Cup match, surpassing Adam Gilchrist’s 149 during Australia’s 2007 final win versus Sri Lanka

# De Kock’s 174 is the second-highest individual score by a South Africa batter in men’s World Cup, after Gary Kirsten’s 188 not out against UAE in 1996

# De Kock’s on Tuesday became only the sixth batter to have scored three hundred in a single men’s World Cup edition.

# De Kock is the leading run-getter in the 2023 edition, with 407 runs from five games.

“Knowing the character that he is, he is certainly not going to rest on that. He has got great ambitions to go all the way and be a real strong performer for the team.”

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Aiden Markram, the South Africa stand-in captain for its back-to-back wins in Mumbai, stressed that de Kock is valued by the group much more than his exploits on the field.

“We all know Quinton to be the free-spirited guy that he is, but he actually has a fantastic cricket brain on him. So, he assesses conditions really well and communicates that to us off the field even before we have walked out to bat,” Markram said.

“It adds a lot of value in that regard. And then you never want to clip his wings really. You just want to let him fly. He structures it the exact way he feels need, and we back that completely as a unit.”