‘Was trying to keep it in, but when it came out, felt good,’ said De Kock
On Wednesday, May 18, Quinton de Kock made an unorthodox celebratory move after reaching his second IPL century against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 66th game of the IPL 2022. The wicketkeeper-batter revealed the reason behind his celebration and said that it came out of frustration.
The South African opener smacked his bat in excitement and let out a yell to celebrate his hundred, which was his first in the IPL since 2016. With his knock, De Kock partnered with KL Rahul to register the highest opening partnership in the history of the IPL, 210. LSG defeated KKR by two runs in a tense encounter thanks to a scorching century by De Kock and an aggressive half-century by KL Rahul.
“I was a little bit cooked (after his innings) but it was a matter of getting some refreshments and getting on with it I guess. It was a bit of frustration that came out (on his aggressive century celebrations). Felt really good to come out and do well. Was trying to keep it in, but when it came out, felt good,” said De Kock in the post-match presentation.
KKR played really well, assessed conditions well, and came hard at us: De Kock
The opening duo smashed 210 runs in 20 overs as they put up a big total for KKR to chase. De Kock contributed to most of it as he knocked an unbeaten 140*(70) thereby smashing 10 fours and as many big sixes. Rahul took a backseat and De Kock was on a roll from the first ball that he faced. When asked if he had thought the game to end in such a close encounter, he said:
“To be honest, not really. Obviously, they played really well, assessed conditions well, and came hard at us. I thought he (Stoinis) would defend it easily. But when the first three went, I thought the game was done for us. But that catch turned things for us. As they say, good catches win matches.”
KKR required 21 runs off the final over to reach their target of 211, and Rinku Singh hit 18 runs off four balls to bring down the game to three runs off the last two deliveries. Evin Lewis eventually caught him off Marcus Stoinis’ delivery on the penultimate ball, and LSG won the game by two runs.
