Quinton de Kock

Quinton de Kock (born 17 December 1992) is a South African cricketer and former captain of the Proteas in all three formats. Playing for the Titans at the domestic level, Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and South Africa at international level. He was named the Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's 2017 Annual Awards.

An opening batsman and wicket-keeper, de Kock made his domestic debut for the Highveld Lions during the 2012/2013 season. He quickly caught the national selectors' eye when he starred in a match-winning partnership with Neil McKenzie in the Champions League T20 against the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He also finished fourth on the first-class rankings, despite playing only six of the 10 matches that summer.

He made his international debut in the first match of South Africa's home Twenty20 International series against the touring New Zealanders during the 2012/13 season. He was asked to keep wickets in place of AB de Villiers, who asked to be rested. He has since played regularly for the team at both One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) level. In February 2014, he also made his Test debut for South Africa, playing solely as a batsman.

By his 20th ODI match, he had already scored five centuries. He became the fourth player to score three successive one-day centuries and the second player to score four ODI centuries before his 21st birthday. In his 74th ODI, against Sri Lanka on 10 February 2017, he became the fastest player to complete 12 ODI hundreds, bettering Hashim Amla, who had achieved the landmark in 81 innings.

Before joining the Titans in 2015, de Kock played domestic cricket for Gauteng and the Highveld Lions. He has also played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Mumbai Indians. Although he opens the batting in One Day International and T20 cricket, he primarily bats in the middle order in Test cricket. In July 2020, he was named South Africa's Men's Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's annual awards ceremony. In December 2020, in the series against Sri Lanka, de Kock captained South Africa for the first time in Test cricket.

De Kock attended King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. He was spotted as a schoolboy talent and used to play for the affiliate club Old Eds. In the 2012 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, he scored 95 off 131 balls in South Africa's first match against Bangladesh, which the team won by 133 runs. In the second match against Namibia, he scored 126 off 106 balls, with South Africa winning again, by 209 runs. In the quarter-final match against England, de Kock scored only 7 runs, but performed well as wicket-keeper, recording five dismissals (two stumpings and three catches). Overall, de Kock scored 284 runs throughout the tournament, ranking fourth for the tournament.

From Johannesburg, he debuted for Gauteng's senior team during the 2009–10 season, aged 16, and subsequently represented the national under-19 team at the 2012 Under-19 World Cup. In April 2021, he was named in Northerns' squad, ahead of the 2021–22 cricket season in South Africa.

Ram Slam Twenty20

In the 2013 domestic twenty20 tournament in South Africa, De Kock played several good knocks to take his team Highveld Lions to the final where they won, eventually becoming the season dalla champions. On 18 February 2013, in the same tournament against Cape Cobras he hit the second highest T20 score of 126 in South Africa. His knock of 126 is also the highest T20 score ever made by a wicketkeeper batsman in an innings (126).

Indian Premier League

De Kock was bought for $20,000 by IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL players' auction on 3 February 2013 to play for the 2013 IPL Season. But he failed to impress in IPL-6 when he got chances in the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), de Kock spent the 2013 tournament with Sunrisers Hyderabad, and signed to the Delhi Daredevils for the 2014 tournament. On 12 February 2014, De Kock was sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 3.5 Crore (approximately $560,000 according to the then exchange rate) in the IPL players' auction. He eventually became the highest bid foreign wicket-keeper in the auction. He was a part of the Delhi Daredevils team till 2017. He was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018 auction for Rs 2.8 Crore. He played for Mumbai Indians in the 2019 Season after MI purchased him from Royal Challengers Bangalore where he played some crucial knocks throughout the tournament which saw Mumbai win the 2019 Final against Chennai Super Kings. He was the highest run scorer for the Mumbai Indians in the 2019 IPL season.

Other T20 franchise cricket

De Kock came to the spotlight after scoring 51 not out off 33 balls in their first match for South African Highveld Lions against Mumbai Indians in Champions League Twenty20, 2012 in Johannesburg. While chasing 158, after an early breakdown, he along with the experienced Neil McKenzie took the team home. Although he failed to keep this consistency in the remaining matches, he came to the spotlight after this tournament. In the 2013 CLT20 which was hosted in India, de Kock scored 109 not out off 63 balls against Otago Volts in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

In October 2018, he was named in Cape Town Blitz's squad for the first edition of the Mzansi Super League T20 tournament. In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the Cape Town Blitz team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament.

ODI cricket

De Kock represented South Africa for the first time, at T20 level, on 21 December 2012 against New Zealand. While South Africa crushed New Zealand and got them all out for only 86, the hosts chased it down easily with 8 wickets still remaining. De Kock made an impression on his first appearance by scoring an unbeaten 28 off 23 while chasing. He also kept wicket and gloved two catches. De Kock made his debut for the South African ODI side on 19 January 2013, against New Zealand at Boland Park Stadium, Paarl, South Africa. It was reported that he was training and grooming under veteran retired South African wicket-keeper batsman Mark Boucher ahead of the ODI series against New Zealand. He was promoted to the opening batting spot from his second match onwards with Graeme Smith in his debut series.

In November 2013, he was selected in the first XI of South Africa against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, in place of Colin Ingram. De Kock scored a match winning 112 off 135 balls on a tough batting track in Abu Dhabi in the fourth ODI to reach his maiden ODI century. South Africa won the ODI series 4–1. They also played two T20 games against Pakistan. De Kock scored 48 not out in the first match while chasing and took them home. They won that T20 series too by 2–0.

On 5 December 2013, De Kock scored 135 against India at his home ground in Johannesburg. His innings guided the team to a 141-run victory over India and he was awarded his first-ever 'Man of the Match' award in One Day International cricket. He followed his performance with another successive ODI ton in the next match against the same team in Durban. He scored 106 runs making a record-breaking opening stand of 194 in Durban with teammate Hashim Amla who also scored a century in the same match. This performance awarded him another 'Man of the Match' award while they already won the series beating India by 134 runs. He again broke a century knock of 101 in the 3rd ODI which was later abandoned due to rain, but he became only the fifth person to achieve this feat of three consecutive centuries in One Day Internationals, after Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar, Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers. He also became the highest run-getter ever in a three-match bilateral ODI series, breaking the previous record of Martin Guptill. Meanwhile, he was awarded the 'Man of the Series'.

De Kock scored his 5th ODI century knock of 128 against Sri Lanka to record their first-ever ODI series win in Sri Lanka. He also scored his maiden test fifty in the series.

In the 3-match tour to Zimbabwe in August, 2014, De Kock eventually became the joint quickest batsman to reach 1000 runs in ODI cricket sharing the record with Viv Richards, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen. He reached the milestone in 21 innings. He was also awarded the 'Player of the Series' in that tournament where South Africa beat Zimbabwe 3–0.

For his performances in 2014, he was named in the World ODI XI by ICC. He was also named as wicket keeper of the ODI XI in 2016 by ICC and Cricinfo.

In the ODI series against Bangladesh in 2017, he along with Hashim Amla set the highest record ODI runstand for South Africa with an unbeaten partnership of 282 runs. This is also the highest-ever partnership in One-Day Internationals without losing any wickets. For his performances in 2017, he was named as wicket keeper of the World ODI XI by ICC.

In April 2019, he was named in South Africa's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The International Cricket Council (ICC) named de Kock as the key player of South Africa's squad for the tournament. In the opening match of the World Cup against England, he scored 68. He ultimately finished with 305 runs from 8 matches, including three half centuries.

On 4 February 2020, during the home ODI series against England he scored his 15th ODI century and became joint second fastest South African to reach 5,000 ODI runs. In the same match he also became only the second wicket keeper opening batsman after Adam Gilchrist while captaining the side to score a century in ODIs.

On 4 April 2021, wicket keeper De Kock was involved in a controversial run out of Fakhar Zaman (cricketer) who was just 7 runs from a double hundred as well as a possible victory for his side where Pakistan ran short of just 15 runs over a massive total of 341. The action from De Kock was termed as "Cheating" and "Fake Fielding" by cricketer Shoaib Akktar in specific and masses from public in general.

Test cricket

In February 2014, de Kock made his Test debut for South Africa, scoring seven runs in the first innings and 34 runs in the second innings against Australia at St George's Oval in Port Elizabeth.

In January 2016, when South Africa was losing the home Test series against England, De Kock was recalled to the Test side for the second Test, taking the keeper's gloves from AB de Villiers, but failed to deliver. He was replaced by Dane Vilas at the 11th hour before the third Test, after a freak injury he picked up at home the afternoon before. He was again selected for the fourth and the final Test and scored his debut Test century with a score of 129 not out in the first innings coming to bat at number seven. In the tour, De Kock reached a milestone as the fastest to reach 10 ODI centuries. He completed his 10th century in his 55th match. In their 3rd test against Pakistan he made his same score of 129 in their 2nd innings in 2019.

On 22 July 2018 during the second test match against Sri Lanka, he went on to become the fastest wicketkeeper in terms of matches (35) to take 150 test dismissals. On 27 January 2019 during the fourth test match against England, he broke the record for the fastest wicketkeeper to effect 200 dismissals (47).

On 12 June 2021, Quinton de Kock joined Mark Boucher in3,000 runs in Test cricket as a wicketkeeper for South Africa club during his career-best 141 not-out against West Indies.

T20I cricket

In March 2014, South Africa played a 3-match Twenty20 series against Australia. De Kock was named the 'Player of the Series' in the tournament although South Africa lost the series by 0–2. In 2019–2020 season de Kock was brilliant in this format scoring 4 half centuries. In September 2021, De Kock was named in South Africa's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

In October 2021, during the Men's T20 World Cup, de Kock made himself unavailable for South Africa's match against West Indies after refusing to take the knee.

De Kock married his girlfriend, Sasha Hurly, in September 2015.

Milestones

• Fastest South African to reach 1,000 ODI runs.
• Fastest wicketkeeper in terms of matches (35) to take 150 test dismissals.
• Fastest wicket-keeper, in terms of matches, to complete 200 dismissals in Tests (47) beating the previous record held by Adam Gilchrist.
• Only the second wicket keeper opener while captaining the side to score a century in ODIs.
• Fastest South African to score a T20I half century (17 balls).