Watch: Quinton de Kock appeared to have springs in his legs as he took off to claim a game-turning catch for Southern Brave against London Spirit in The Hundred.
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London Spirit needed 18 off the 15 remaining balls to seal their first win of the competition, but South Africa’s wicketkeeper had other ideas. Josh Inglis – who had gone through to a well-made 50 with a six the previous ball – wanted to target the third-man boundary with fielder Jake Lintott inside the ring.
Chris Jordan, England’s death bowling supremo, delivered a back-of-the-hand slower ball, forcing Inglis to try and make the pace on the ball to clear the fielders. He connected decently with his reverse-scoop, but the ball lobbed to the right of de Kock who dove full stretch to his right to take a spectacular one-handed catch.
From that point on Southern Brave took control of the contest thanks to some more exceptional death bowling from Jordan and Tymal Mills. Wickets continued to fall and with four balls left the Spirit required 10 runs to win. Roelef van der Merwe hit Jordan for four over cover to tighten the contest, before another telling intervention from de Kock.
The Proteas gloveman was involved again when van der Merwe missed the penultimate ball of the innings and the Spirit tried to run a bye. He whipped his glove off and hit the stumps with a direct hit to run out Blake Cullen and effectively end the contest. Five was needed off the final ball, but Mohammed Amir could only manage a scrambled single and Southern Brave were home for their second win of the competition.
Watch the spectacular de Kock grab below:
Just unreal from Quinton de Kock 😱#TheHundred pic.twitter.com/y65UUGIMK1
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 1, 2021
Stop scrolling. Watch this. 🤯
🙇 @QuinnyDeKock69 🙇 #TheHundred pic.twitter.com/F82VnSeENQ
— The Hundred (@thehundred) August 1, 2021