Heard of a batsman forgetting his kitbag containing bats and hating an international hundred with a bat borrowed from a team-mate? That’s what former South African captain Quinton de Kock did when he hit his second T20I hundred in the form of a 49-ball knock of 115 against West Indies in the second T20I at Centurion on Thursday. The 33-year-old had forgotten his kitbags at a hotel near the coast before he realised the mistake but with the flight time between the coast and Super Sport Park being more than two hours, de Kock had to borrow the bats. With South Africa winning the match by seven wickets, de Kock would speak about the mistake and how he looked around the kit bags in the dressing room and picked team-mate Brevis’ bat.
“I felt a bit stupid when I noticed earlier. I have got some new bags over the last year, so I was going through all bits and bobs, and I just went blank. I don’t know, I forgot. I went a bit white when I realised I had to make one or two phone calls half-an-hour before the bus was leaving (to try and get them back). Before I got into the change room, I went looking around between (Dewald) Brevis and Ricks (Ryan Rickelton) and I just pulled one out of Brevis’s bag. I said, ‘I’m just going to use this one today’. Brevis said, ‘It’s fine, it’s a good bat for you because it’s a left-handed bat’. And I was like, ‘Wow! Youngsters these days!,” de Kock said after the match while speaking with reporters.
The 33-year-old opener stitched together a 162-run second wicket partnership with Ryan Rickelton (77) and fell to Akeal Hosein in the 15th over with a miscued shot. It was de Kock’s second hundred in T20Is and his previous T20I hundred too had come against West Indies at the same ground in the second T20I in 2023. The former South African captain smashed ten sixes and six boundaries during his stay at the crease. He was rested along with Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen for the first T20I at Paarl and will be playing the third and last T20I at Johannesburg before the South African team flies to India for the ICC T20 World Cup. The xx-year-old shared about the fact that he will be using his own bats in case they arrive in time and the bat used in Thursday’s game will be going back to Brevis. “If my bats come before the next game, I will be using my own bats so no, that bat is going back to Brevis. To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. The weight was out of place for me. It’s for youngsters who swing hard. So I won’t be having it back at any time,” said de Kock.
South Africa leads the three match T2-I series 2-0. The team had won the opening match of the series at Paarl by nine wickets. De Kock also spoke about how he enjoyed his knock and the wicket being ‘very good’. “The wicket was very good and we played accordingly. It was really nice,” he said. “I’m one of those guys that prefer really working hard on hard batting wickets, working hard from being really clever, being street smart, Tonight the wicket was that good you can just bat. I really enjoyed my innings. It was great and we won the game. But to be honest, in T20 cricket, I’ve worked harder for my runs, which gives me a lot more satisfaction,” added de Kock.