Q is for (Q)uniton De Kock an up and coming wicketkeeper-batsman from South Africa – #BlogchaterAtoZ #AtoZChallenge 2019

Q is for (Q)uniton De Kock an up and coming wicketkeeper-batsman from South Africa – #BlogchaterAtoZ #AtoZChallenge 2019

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

So we finally arrive at one of the toughest letters of the A to Z challenge, ‘Q’. To be honest, it proved to be extremely difficult for me to come up with the name of a sportsperson that began with the letter ‘Q’. When I searched on the net I did find several names but most of these people were not well-known personalities with great accomplishments. That is when I hit upon the name of the familiar Quinton De Kock. For those of you who may not be in the know, Quinton De Kock is a South African cricketer who also plays in the Indian Premier League. He is regarded as one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world comparable to the Australian great Adam Gilchrist.

De Kock was born on 17, December 1992 and did his schooling in King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. He was first spotted as a schoolboy talent and used to play for the affiliate club Old Eds. At the age of 16, De Kock debuted for Gauteng’s senior team in the 2009-10 season. His first major accomplishment was scoring 95 runs off 131 balls in South Africa’s first match against Bangladesh in the 2012 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. This match ended in a resounding win for South Africa.

In the same tournament, De Kock proceeded to score 126 runs off 106 balls in the second match against Namibia and the match was again won by South Africa. In the quarterfinal match, De Kock shined as a wicketkeeper when he recorded five dismissals with three of them being stumpings and the other two catches. De Kock scored 284 runs with the bat in the tournament and was ranked as the 4th highest run-scorer.

In the South African domestic season of 2013, De Kock played a number of very good knocks for his team Highveld Lions which resulted in the team becoming the Dalla champions. One of his memorable innings in this tournament came on 18th February 2013 when he hit the highest ever T20 score of 126 in South Africa. This superb inning came against Cape Cobras.  

The IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad bought De Kock for $20,000 in the 2013 player’s auction, but he failed to impress. In the 2014 season of IPL, he signed up with Delhi Daredevils for Rs. 3.5 crore as an exchange player. This led to his becoming the highest bid foreign wicketkeeper in the auction. He played for Delhi Daredevils till the 2017 season when he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2018 auction for Rs 2.8 Crore.

In the 2019 season, Mumbai Indians purchased him from Royal Challengers Bangalore and he is currently playing for MI. In his international career, he represented South Africa in T20’s for the first time on 21, December 2012 against New Zealand. South Africa defeated New Zealand in this match and De Kock impressed with an unbeaten 28 off 23 balls while chasing.

He made his debut in the South African ODI side on 19, January 2013 against New Zealand in Boland Park Stadium, Paarl, South Africa. He was promoted to the opening batting spot with Graeme Smith from his second match onwards. On November 13 2013, in a match against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, UAE he scored a match-winning 112 off 135 balls on a wicket that was difficult to bat on to reach his maiden ODI century. The ODI series was won by South Africa 4-1. South Africa also won the T20 series 2-0 and De Kock scored 48 not out in the first match of the T20 series.

De Kock then scored 135 against India on his home ground Johannesburg. His innings helped South Africa beat India by 141 runs. De Kock won the ‘Man of the Match’ award. He followed this with another century against India in Durban. He scored 106 runs in a record-breaking opening stand of 194 runs with teammate Hashim Amla. He was the ‘Man of the Match’ in this ODI too.

In the 3rd ODI, he again scored a century and became the fifth person to achieve the feat of scoring three consecutive centuries in 3 ODI’s. He was also the highest run-getter in a three-match bilateral ODI series. In this series, he also bagged the ‘Man of the Series’ award. De Kock made his test debut for South Africa on February 2014 against Australia at St George’s Oval in Port Elizabeth. He scored just 7 and 34 in the two innings in this match. De Kock was dropped from the test side.

He was again recalled for the home test series vs England for the second test and took the wicket keeper’s gloves from AB de Villiers. He was injured in this test and was replaced by Dane Vilas for the third test. But he was however selected for the fourth and final test and scored his first test century by hitting 129 not out in the first innings when he came in to bat at number 7. 

De Kock reached a milestone as the fastest player to reach 10 ODI centuries in his 55th ODI. As regards his personal life, Quinton De Kock is married to his girlfriend Sasha Hurly. He married her on September 2016. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about Quinton De Kock who is my choice for the letter ‘Q’. Many people might argue that this player does not have a right to be in this list and I have included him only because his name begins with a ‘Q’.

That is a debatable point but he is an up and coming cricketer with loads of cricket still left in him and who knows what he may accomplish in the coming years. His track record is definitely very promising.

Tags – #BlogchaterAtoZ 2019 #AtoZChallenge 2019

16 thoughts on “Q is for (Q)uniton De Kock an up and coming wicketkeeper-batsman from South Africa – #BlogchaterAtoZ #AtoZChallenge 2019”

  1. I am glad he made it to your list, Jai. I have seen this cute guy performing amazingly well in the IPL as I was supporting RCB till last year.

  2. I was wondering about whom you will write today. You have found the gem (Again!). I have seen him in RCB matches. I must say he is brilliant in both wicket keeping & batting. Sad to see him in playing MI because I don't support them :p

  3. I still remember when he burst on the seen and scored back to back centuries against India. Lots of potential but consistency a issue. I guess Q was the reason for choosing him.
    #ContemplationOfaJoker #Jokerophilia

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