It took Quinton De Kock just 4 years to breeze past modern day greats of the game including Mahendra Singh Dhoni to become the fastest wicket-keeper to get to 3000 One-Day international runs.
His hunger for success and runs with the bat helped him reach the milestone in just 74 games. Now the 24-year-old has been a constant for the Proteas in all forms of the game and to be this consistent in ODI’s is a brilliant job done.
De Kock started off his international career on a high too as he scored three back to back ODI centuries and shares the record with the now retired Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka.
He was 21 then, and from then on there was no looking back. At this rate, it won’t be impossible for him to break the other records like the fastest to 4000 or 5000 runs.
His closest competitor gloveman was India’s World Cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who took 90 outings to achieve the landmark. But then again De Kock is an opener whereas Dhoni has batted at No.6 and 7 for most of his ODI career.
The other two wicket-keepers on the top 80 are Adam Gilchrist and former Zimbabwean captain Brendon Taylor.
While the Australian legend Gilchrist took 95 matches to achieve the feat, Brendon took 105 games. However, the latter quit playing for Zimbabwe as he signed a Kolpak deal to play in England and Gilchrist has retired from international cricket some time back.
The list is headed by De Kock’s teammate Hashim Amla who took just 57 innings to get to the milestone. Overall, De Kock is 8th on the list just behind New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and Indian skipper Virat Kohli who took 75 matches.
The list also features the likes of West Indies legend Viv Richards (69 games) and Joe Root in the top 10. It also astonishingly features India’s Shikhar Dhawan who has done it in just 72 games.
At 25, De Kock is also one of the youngest to achieve the feat which in itself is quite amazing.
The South African brought up the feat of Friday by smashing LD Madushanka to the ropes in the 4th delivery of the eight over. He then went on to score a ton and was finally dismissed for 109.
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