LSG's Quinton de Kock joins AB de Villiers in exclusive club with sublime 81-run knock vs RCB at IPL 2024

Quinton de Kock smashed multiple records with his 81-run knock in the IPL 2024 match between LSG and RCB.

Continuing his impressive run in the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday, South Africa's Quinton de Kock played a sensational knock for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) against hosts Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Opening the innings for KL Rahul's LSG after RCB won the toss and invited the visitors to bat, Proteas batter De Kock smashed a quick-fire half-century to help the Super Giants post a challenging total.

Quinton de Kock plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super Giants(PTI)

Dropped on 32 by Glenn Maxwell, De Kock completed his half-century in 36 balls. The former Mumbai Indians batter notched up his 22nd half-century for the visitors. The LSG opener also achieved multiple records with his entertaining knock against the Virat Kohli-starrer side. The Lucknow Super Giants wicketkeeper-batter completed 3,000 runs in the world's richest T20 league - the IPL.

Quinton de Kock joins AB de Villiers in exclusive club

De Kock achieved the feat while playing his 99th game in the IPL. The Proteas batter is the 23rd player to complete 3,000 runs in the T20 tournament. He has also joined AB de Villiers (5162 runs) and Faf du Plessis (4179) in the three-member list of South Africa batters with 3k runs at the IPL.

Batting at a strike rate of 144.54, De Kock creamed eight fours and smoked five sixes against RCB. The South African batter ended up scoring 81 off 56 balls in the high-scoring encounter. While De Kock top-scored for LSG, West Indies power-hitter Nicholas Pooran remained unbeaten on 40 off 21 balls. Pooran's crucial cameo powered LSG to 181-5 in 20 overs.

'Dropped catches cost RCB'

RCB's Maxwell emerged as the pick of the bowlers. The RCB spinner bagged two wickets and leaked 23 runs in his four overs."Plan was to keep it simple and wait for a mistake. Probably going to be a tough chase because it's (bounce) a bit inconsistent, we have to be at our best. I felt like we gave a lot of easy boundaries at the start and wanted to get a bit of energy and a wicket. Dropped catches cost us. I think it's two paced so we have to be at our best. Hopefully the ones who get starts can go on," Maxwell said during the innings break.