The three-match ODI series was a special one for Quinton de Kock, who became only the fifth batsman to score three successive ODI centuries
Shiva Jayaraman12-Dec-2013Quinton de Kock’s ODI career figures weren’t remarkable till November this year, having scored just 399 runs from 13 innings at 30.69. In one of those innings he had scored 112, which means that he averaged just 23.91 in the other 12 innings. These were quite ordinary figures that didn’t quite justify replacing Graeme Smith, who has had similar numbers in ODIs in 2013. Smith has scored 291 runs at 26.45 from 11 innings, with one century against New Zealand in Potchefstroom.But de Kock showed promise with his 112 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last month. He became the youngest South Africa batsman – at 20 years and 326 days – to hit an ODI century, replacing Jacques Kallis from the top of that list. Kallis was 22 years and 92 days old when he hit his maiden ODI century against New Zealand in Perth in 1998.The three-match ODI series against India, though, has expelled any doubts about de Kock’s place in South Africa’s ODI team. He has scored 342 runs in this series at 114.00 – the most any batsman has scored in a three-match bilateral series in ODIs. Only two other batsmen have scored in excess of 300 runs in such series – Martin Guptill, in New Zealand’s series against England earlier this year, and Brendan Taylor, against New Zealand in 2011. De Kock’s 342 runs in this series are also the seventh-highest runs scored by a South Africa batsman in any bilateral ODI series.No batsman has scored more than three hundreds in a series, bilateral or otherwise. Including de Kock, there are 15 instances of batsmen scoring three hundreds in an ODI series. But all the those batsmen, aside from de Kock, have batted more than three times to score those hundreds.He’s become only the fifth batsman in ODIs to hit three consecutive hundreds. AB de Villiers was the last one to do this back in 2010. Before de Kock, Zaheer Abbas was the only batsman to get all his three hundreds against one team, with India on the receiving end of that little spell as well. In fact, of these 15 hundreds scored, nine have been against India.Three centuries in a row in any format of the game usually signifies a hunger for getting runs. De Kock’s shown that hunger at a fairly early stage of his career compared to the others who’ve achieved this feat. Before de Kock, Zaheer was the youngest in terms of experience, at 40 ODIs when he hit three consecutive hundreds, but by then he was aged over 35. Herschelle Gibbs and de Villiers, the other South Africa batsmen to hit three consecutive hundreds in ODIs, achieved it when they had played 105 ODIs and 93 ODIs respectively.
BatsmanMatInnsRuns100sAge at the time of recordQuinton de Kock1616741420 years, 359 daysSaeed Anwar41401350625 years, 57 daysAB de Villiers97933435726 years, 94 daysHerschelle Gibbs10510534411028 years, 222 daysZaheer Abbas36361652635 years, 181 daysAll four of de Kock’s hundreds have come before he’s aged 21. He is only the second batsman in ODIs – after Paul Stirling of Ireland – to hit as many before turning 21. Only two other batsmen have managed three hundreds before that age – Tamim Iqbal and Shahriar Nafees of Bangladesh.
BatsmanMatInnsRuns100s50sAgeQuinton de Kock (SA)16167414020 years, 359 daysPaul Stirling (IRE)323213174620 years, 312 daysShahriar Nafees (BAN)292910583520 years, 309 daysTamim Iqbal (BAN)7474219831320 years, 345 daysThose are not the only records that de Kock’s made in this series. He took four catches behind the wickets, in addition to the 106 runs he scored, in the second ODI against India – only the fifth player to do so in ODIs. Like with the consecutive hundreds, de Kock emulated de Villiers again, who was the last wicketkeeper-batsman to do so. Matching the rest of de Villiers’ achievements in international cricket won’t be easy, but de Kock’s first year in ODI cricket has clearly raised expectations.