SA vs IND: Quinton de Kock breaks records as he smashes 17th ODI ton

Quinton
de Kock on Sunday smashed 124 off 130 balls against India to help South Africa
set 288 runs target for the visitors in the third and final ODI of the series at the
Newlands, Cape Town. De Kock’s hundred rescued South Africa from early damage
that they incurred after captain Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram and Janneman Malan
were sent packing by Deepak Chahar and a piece of brilliant fielding by captain
KL Rahul. During his well-composed knock, de Kock hit 12 boundaries and two
sixes. This was de Kock’s 17th ODI hundred.

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With
this ton, the southpaw reached a new career milestone. The South African batter
now has six ODI hundreds against India. He is now levelled with AB de Villiers
as the South African cricketer with most centuries against India. With seven
tons, Sri Lankan great Sanath Jayasuriya leads the chart of most hundreds against India.

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Former Australia
captain Ricky Ponting and legendry Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara also
have six hundreds each against India. But de Kock reached the sixth ODI hundred
of his career against India, taking the least number of matches, 16.

De
Villiers had scored six centuries in 32 matches while Ponting and Sangakkara
played 59 and 71 matches against India, respectively.

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De
Kock has also taken the least number of matches to reach six hundreds against a
single opponent in ODIs. While de Kock took only 16 innings to hit six hundreds
against India, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag needed 23 innings to
reach the feat against New Zealand. Australia captain Aaron Finch, too, hit six
centuries against England in 23 innings. Former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar
took 26 innings to achieve the feat against Sri Lanka.

De
Kock surpasses Adam Gilchrist

Meanwhile,
de Kock surpassed former Australian great Adam Gilchrist to reach the
second spot for most ODI centuries scored by designated wicketkeepers. The
29-year-old batter hit his 17th ODI ton on Sunday.

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De Kock is now only behind former
Sri Lanka captain Sangakkara, who has 23 ODI tons under his name. Meanwhile,
Gilchrist is third in the list with 16 tons, followed by AB de Villiers, Shai
Hope and MS Dhoni in the fourth spot with 10 centuries.