"Always Been Very Special To Me": AB De Villiers On Quinton De Kock's Monumental Cricket World Cup Run

South African legend AB de Villiers has said that Quinton de Kock's record-breaking run during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 has not come as a surprise as he "has always been very special". While de Villiers is generally regarded as one of the best South African batters of recent times, de Kock has put his name up in the lights with a string of superb individual performances at the World Cup in India. De Kock already has four centuries to his name - the equal-second most by an individual at a Men's Cricket World Cup - and the 545 runs he has amassed through seven innings is the highest ever achieved by any South African batter in a single edition of the tournament.

The record-breaking run by de Kock has come as no surprise to de Villiers, who has always held his former teammate in the upper echelon of players to come from South Africa.

"He has always been very special to me since the very first day I watched him play," de Villiers said in India as quoted by ICC.

"Quinnie showed that he was just a class above anyone else. I have never really seen anyone hit the ball on the up consistently like he does and he has always maintained that form."

"Yes, one or two failures here or there, but he has always had the ability to bounce back," he concluded.

De Kock's four centuries over the last month in India means the left-hander now has 21 ODI centuries to his name, four less than the 25 ODI tons that de Villiers managed during his long and distinguished white-ball career that stretched more than 13 years.

De Villiers even scored an astonishing 482 runs for his country during the 11th edition of the World Cup in Australia in 2015, but de Kock has already surpassed that tally during his sensational run in India.

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