‘I felt quite scratchy upfront’: Quinton de Kock after record-breaking knock

NEW DELHI: Quinton de Kock smashed his fourth century of the World Cup despite feeling scratchy at the start of his innings, powering South Africa to a big total against New Zealand at Pune’s MCA Stadium on Wednesday.
The Protean batter broke quite a few records en-route to his record-equalling fourth century as he became only the third player after Kumar Sangakkara and Rohit Sharma to register four centuries in a single edition of the tournament.

De Kock also made 100 against Sri Lanka, 109 in the game with Australia and 174 in the victory over Bangladesh.

Sangakkara achieved the feat in the 2015 edition in Australia, while Rohit reached his landmark in the 2019 edition of the tournament in England. De Kock is now just two short of breaking Indian skipper Rohit’s record of 5 hundreds in a single World Cup edition which he did in the last edition of the event. And the way South African opener is batting you might see him ending up with the record.
“I think so (best form). I am feeling really good lately. Nice that everything is coming together at an important time for us. They bowled really well upfront, especially Boulty. I felt quite scratchy upfront, I couldn’t find my rhythm, I was getting a couple of messages from the guys on the bench to bat through. I just want to keep batting,” de Kock said in the mid-innings interaction.
“My career is coming down to a finish, trying to bat as much as I can. If the wicket stays the same, it will be good enough. The wicket does get better under lights. 357 is always a good score, but we are playing against a really good team, let’s see what happens,” he added.
In the process, de Kock (22) surpassed Australian Adam Gilchrist’s (19) landmark of hitting most sixes by a wicketkeeper-batter in ODI World Cups. Another South African Mark Boucher (15) is third on the list followed by former Indian captain MS Dhoni (15).
De Kock, who will be retiring from ODIs after the World Cup, achieved yet another feat by becoming the top run-getter as wicket-keeper with 545* runs to his name in a single World Cup edition. He overtook Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara (541) who previously held the record made in the 2015 edition. Incidentally, Sanga (465) bettered his previous feat of 2011 World Cup before breaking Gilchrist’s record of 453 runs in the 2007 World Cup.

The left-handed opener scored 114 off 116 balls – his 21st ODI ton with – the help of 10 fours and 3 sixes. He also became the first batsman to reach 500 runs in the ongoing edition.
The 30-year-old, who will quit ODIs when this tournament is over, leads the World Cup run chart ahead of Australia’s David Warner (413) and New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra (406).