South Africa were put into bat first by New Zealand, giving De Kock another opportunity to make a fast start. Quinton de Kock was this World Cup’s leading run-scorer going into the match, having hit hundreds against Sri Lanka, Australia and Bangladesh. While he was circumspect alongside Temba Bavuma in the powerplay this time, he accelerated as the innings went on.

He reached his fifty off 62 balls with a single off Rachin Ravindra, but needed only another 41 balls to get to three figures. On 94, with Jimmy Neesham bowling, he hit a six of the last ball of the 36th over to reach the milestone in style.

Faced with a short of a length ball down the leg side, de Kock stayed back in his crease and swung powerfully high behind square into the leg side. The ball sailed up and over the deep-backward square boundary rope and a couple of rows back into the crowd.

Carrying on the momentum, De Kock reached 114 off 116 balls before he was dismissed by Tim Southee. He miscued a slower ball straight to Glenn Phillips at backward point, finishing his innings with his second-highest score of the tournament so far.

De Kock has scored 545 runs in seven matches during the World Cup. He averages 77.85 in the competition with a strike rate of 112.6. He has already gone past Jacques Kallis’ South African record of most runs in a single edition – 485 in 2007.

At the point he was dismissed, South Africa were 238-2 with ten overs remaining in their innings.

Watch: Quinton de Kock smashes massive leg-side six to reach fourth World Cup century

 

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