Quinton de Kock played with exuberance for Lucknow Super Giants against Kolkata Knight Riders to score a brilliant ton in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 game on Wednesday. He went unbeaten at 140 (70b, 10x6s, 10x4s) while LSG scored a massive 210/0 in 20 overs. His co-opener and LSG captain KL Rahul remained unbeaten at 68* (51b, 4x6s, 3x4s). When they crossed the score of 185 together, the duo’s standings became the highest ever by openers in IPL history. This is also the highest score ever for a wicket against KKR. LSG won the game by two runs and qualified for the play-offs.
de Kock’s score of 140 is the highest individual score in IPL 2022. This is also the third highest individual score ever in IPL history after Chris Gayle’s 175* (RCB v PWI, Bengaluru, 2013) and a 158* by Brendon McCullum (KKR v RCB, Bengaluru, 2008).
Rahul and De Kock’s 210* tie is the third highest ever partnership for a wicket in IPL after 229 by Virat Kohli – AB De Villiers (RCB v GL, Bengaluru, 2016) and 215* Kohli-De Villiers (RCB v MI , Bombay, 2015).
Both Rahul and de Kock got the measure of the wicket in the power play, reaching 44 without a loss, before showing off their wide range of strokes en route to their unbeaten 210-run stand.
De Kock, who was dropped by Abhijeet Tomar off Umesh Yadav in the third over, made KKR pay heavily by taking the season’s highest score.
The South African was in his element, crushing the spinners and pacers with equal disdain.
He used the pull shot against the faster bowlers and was at his most innovative against seasoned spin duo Sunil Narine and deviant Varun Chakaravarthy.
Of the sixes he hit, De Kock’s reverse sweep of Narine stood out. Slightly short of the pacers, de Kock was happy to put it away over a deep square leg area.
The southpaw wasn’t in the mood to quit even after hitting three digits. Tim Southee was bad at the death-overs as he fed ball after ball into the slot for De Kock to deposit it in the stands.
His 19th over yielded no less than 27 runs, with De Kock finding the limit at will.
promoted
Rahul watched De Kock’s breathtaking knock from the best seat in the house. The skipper didn’t have much to do in the slog overs, but he also played some superb shots en route into his third half-century of the season.
Rahul also completed 500 runs in the tournament for the fifth season in a row. PTI KKR bowlers leaked 88 runs in the last five overs.
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