Quinton de Kock Continues Prolific Form At Cricket World Cup With Another Century In Win Over New Zealand

South Africa thrashed New Zealand by 190 runs on Wednesday to record their sixth win in seven games at the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in India. The win was largely down to Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen registering centuries for South Africa.

This victory puts the Proteas in a commanding position in the group table with 12 points and on the brink of securing a semi-final spot.

South Africa were put into bat first after New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl. However, that appeared to be costly as de Kock hit his fourth century of the World Cup to help contribute to South Africa's big total of 357/4 after 50 overs.

De Kock's innings saw him score 114 runs off 116 balls and included 10 fours and three sixes. This batting display from the opening batsman follows on from his other centuries at this World Cup against Sri Lanka, Australia and Bangladesh.

The current record for most centuries scored by a batsman at a World Cup is five and is held by current India captain, Rohit Sharma, who achieved this feat at the 2019 World Cup.

South Africa still have two more group games against India and Afghanistan to come, as well as an all-but-assured semi-final fixture and possibly a final if they go that far. Therefore, de Kock may have an opportunity to score more centuries in the tournament and break Sharma's record.

Van der Dussen had the more aggressive batting display out of South Africa's two-century makers as the third-positioned batsman scored 133 runs off 118 deliveries, with him hitting nine fours and five sixes. This was van der Dussen's second century of the tournament as he registered one in the opening match against Sri Lanka.

De Kock and van der Dussen's innings saw them record a massive 200-run partnership that lasted just over 30 overs.

David Miller was another key contributor with the bat to South Africa's score of 357 as he hit a quick-fire 53 runs off just 30 balls. New Zealand's bowling attack was very costly in the final ten overs of South Africa's innings as the Proteas scored 119 runs in that spell.

This was the fifth time South Africa had scored more than 300 runs in an innings at this World Cup. New Zealand knew they had a challenging task ahead of them and would have been hoping for a dominant start from their top-order batsmen, however, that did not materialise due to South Africa's impressive bowling.

Three out of New Zealand's first five batsmen failed to score into double digits with the Black Caps being 90/5 at one point. Middle-order batsman, Glenn Phillips, offered some resistance for New Zealand as he scored 60 runs off 50 deliveries and was the last batsman to fall before his side was bowled out for just 167 runs in 35.3 overs.

Keshav Maharaj and Marco Jansen were dominant with the ball for South Africa as they picked up four and three wickets respectively. Jansen's bowling spell was particularly impressive as he conceded just 31 runs from his eight overs bowled.

Kagiso Rabada was also very efficient for South Africa as he let only 16 runs be scored from his six-over spell, which also included a wicket and two maiden overs.

For New Zealand, this is the third defeat in succession at this World Cup, with this collapse against South Africa following losses to India and Australia. This is a stark contrast in form for the Black Caps at this World Cup as they began the tournament with four victories on the bounce and were positioned near the top of the table.

This poor run of form is coming at the wrong time for New Zealand as they could drop out of the top four places in the group table and fail to make the semi-finals if this losing run continues. New Zealand's next game is against Pakistan in what will be a crucial matchup as Pakistan trails the Black Caps by just two points in the table.

New Zealand will then round up their group-stage fixtures with a game against Sri Lanka.

Afghanistan also trail New Zealand by two points with one fewer game played and will be waiting to pounce should there be any more setbacks by the Black Caps.