Kolkata: Former South African captain Quinton de Kock has retired from ODI cricket with his team's defeat in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 semi-final against Australia at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
Quinton de Kock had announced his retirement prior to the tournament that his campaign in India would be his last appearance for the Proteas in ODI cricket. And he played his last match at the semi-final stage after a phenomenal effort throughout the marquee tournament.
The 30-year-old amassed 594 runs with an exceptional average of 64.22 in 10 matches becoming the highest run-getter for Proteas in the ODI World Cups, with only Virat Kohli scoring more runs than De Kock. He also became the first South African player to slam four centuries in a single edition of the tournament. He also now has the joint second-most hundreds in the marquee tournament with former Sri Lankan batter Kumara Sangakkara.
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de Kock also became the first wicketkeeper to score 500+ runs with 20 dismissals behind the wicket including 19 catches and 1 stumping in the history of the World Cups.
Unfortunately for De Kock, he couldn't do the wonders in his final appearance out in the middle with the bat and in the field. De Kock's battling start came to an abrupt end when he tried to get back momentum towards his side and skied a catch off Josh Hazlewood to end his ODI career with a 14-ball three.
The left-hand batter amassed 6770 runs at an average of 45.74 and a strike rate of 96.64, setting the standard for South Africa and racking up 21 centuries in his ODI career. He also captained the Proteas in all three formats of the game but was unable to perform up to expectations in ODIs and Tests.
de Kock led his side in four Tests (two each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan), with a 50% win record. South Africa beat Sri Lanka 2-0 at home but lost to Pakistan by the same margin where he only managed to score 74 runs at an average of 12.33.
He also captained South Africa in seven ODIs and won four of them and scored 294 runs with an average of 42.00 including a century. However, in the T20Is, he racked up 416 runs averaging 41.60 in 11 matches as a skipper but was unable to take his team over the line in eight matches.
South Africa's skipper Temba Bavuma said, "Us as players, we've enjoyed playing with him (de Kock) through all the years. In South Africa, he will go down as one of the legends of the game."
"He would have wanted to end things on a different note, but he'll remember the type of innings and fight we showed as a team," added Bavuma.
However, South Africa’s record scorer in the shorter format, with 2277 runs in 79 innings at 32.52 and 137.33 must be eyeing to win the first ICC tournament for his country with a T20 World Cup 2024 just 6 months away.
Quinton de Kock has announced a sudden retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect "to spend more time with his growing family" on December 30, 2021. de Kock made his Test debut against Australia in 2014 and played 54 Tests, scoring 3300 runs at an average of 38.82 with six centuries.
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