South Africa opener Quinton de Kock is making his last World Cup memorable for himself. The opening batter is set to retire from ODIs after the mega event but has started his World Cup stint exceptionally well with the bat. He smashed a century in the opening game against Sri Lanka and conitnued his brilliant form against Australia as well.
The southpaw scored 100 in Delhi and then followed it up with a 109-run knock in Lucknow to become only the second player from South Africa to hit consecutive centuries in the World Cup. Only AB de Villiers had achieved this feat before for the Proteas back in 2011 World Cup.
De Villiers had scored 107* and 134 runs against the West Indies and the Netherlands in 2011 to achieve the special record. De Kock has now been added to the list. Moreover, he also became the 15th cricketer overall to smash centuries in consecutive innings at the World Cup.
South Africa amass 311 runs batting first
Meanwhile, South Africa have posted 311 runs on the board in 50 overs after Australia opted to field first. Apart from De Kock's century, Aiden Markram smashed 56 runs of 44 balls while rest of the batters played a very decent supporting hand. Australia had themselves to blame as they dropped quite a few catches in the innings. Glenn Maxwell was the best bowler for them returning with the figures of 2/34 in his 10 overs. Mitchell Starc also picked up a couple of wickets, in the last over of the innings,
Australia have never chased more than 287 runs successfully in World Cup history and it will take quite an effort from them to chase the total down in Lucknow. The likes of David Warner and Steve Smith will be the key for them and almost all the batters will have to chip in with the bat.
