World Cup 2023: South Africa's Quinton de Kock eclipses AB de Villiers' feat with blistering 174 against Bangladesh

Quinton de Kock slammed his third century in five outings in the ongoing ICC World Cup as South Africa posted a mammoth 382/5 on the board after opting to bat against Bangladesh in Mumbai on Tuesday. World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table After posting scores of 100 and 109 against Sri Lanka and Australia respectively earlier in the tournament, de Kock notched up his second-highest score in an ODI innings with a 140-ball 174 against the Bangla Tigers at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. The wicketkeeper-batter, who had earlier indicated the World Cup will be his swansong in the One-Day International format, thus became the first South African to post three centuries in a single edition of the mega event.

De Kock went past AB de Villiers, who had registered two centuries in the 2011 World Cup jointly-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and joined an elite club of batters with three or more centuries in a single edition of the World Cup. De Kock is now level with Australia’s Mark Waugh (1996), Matthew Hayden (2007), David Warner (2019)  and India’s Sourav Ganguly (2003) with three World Cup tons in one edition. LIVE: South Africa vs Bangladesh, 2023 ICC World Cup match in Mumbai Only India skipper Rohit Sharma and former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara are ahead of him in this stat. Rohit collected five tons in the 2019 edition in England while Sangakkara scored four in 2015. De Kock not only has registered the highest individual score of the tournament so far, but also dislodged Virat Kohli from the top of the run-scorers’ list, becoming the first batter to cross the 400-run mark. De Kock currently leads the batters list with 407 runs while Kohli and Rohit sit at the second and third spots with 354 and 311 runs respectively.

QDK…and this South African team. Uff. Playing the most entertaining brand of cricket 👏 👏 #CWC23 #SAvBan

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 24, 2023

Earlier in the day, de Kock became the 16th South African cricketer to complete 150 ODI appearances, and received a special cap from Proteas legend Shaun Pollock at the Wankhede Stadium ahead of the match.

150th cap for Quinton De Kock 💯

What a special way to recieve your cap from Shaun Pollock at the #CWC23 🧢#BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/qVFmjjaDXT

— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) October 24, 2023

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The Proteas, meanwhile, recovered from a shaky start against the Shakib Al Hasan-led side, once again getting within touching distance of the 400-mark after being reduced to 36/2 at one stage. Besides de Kock, stand-in skipper Aiden Markram and explosive middle-order batter Heinrich Klaasen also contibuted to the run-fest with scores of 60 and 90 respectively. Both Markram and Klaasen stitched important partnerships with de Kock, worth 131 and 142 for the third and fourth wickets respectively. De Kock, however, missed out on a maiden international double ton after slicing a full and wide delivery from Hasan Mahmud towards deep backward point, straight down Nasum Ahmed’s throat. Klaasen, who starred in South Africa’s crushing 229-run win over England at the same venue on Saturday with a whirlwind 109, missed out on back-to-back tons after slapping a slower bouncer from Hasan straight to Mahmudullah at deep point. South Africa will go past New Zealand to the second spot on the World Cup points table should they beat Bangladesh on Tuesday.