Quinton de Kock smashes 43-ball hundred as South Africa chase record 259 to beat West Indies in T20 run-fest; highest-scoring T20I in history with 517 runs amassed across the game; Johnson Charles' record 39-ball ton for West Indies comes in vain
Sunday 26 March 2023 18:38, UK
South Africa completed the highest successful chase in T20 cricket of 259 as they beat West Indies by six wickets in a record-breaking run-fest at Centurion.
Quinton de Kock (100 off 44) smashed a 15-ball fifty and a 43-ball hundred as South Africa topped West Indies' 258-5 with seven balls to spare, making 259-4 in 18.5 overs.
The match is the highest-scoring in the history of T20 cricket, with 517 runs amassed across the course of a remarkable encounter at SuperSport Park.
Johnson Charles (118 off 46) had earlier plundered a West Indies-record 39-ball hundred in men's T20s, eclipsing Chris Gayle's 47-ball effort against England during the 2016 T20 World Cup in India.
Charles' 11 sixes and 10 fours, plus Kyle Mayers' 51 off 27 balls and Romario Shepherd's unbeaten 41 off 18, powered West Indies to their highest score in T20 internationals.
However, that proved an inferior total as De Kock and Reeza Hendricks (68 off 28) put on 152 inside 11 overs for the first wicket, before Aiden Markram (38no off 21) and Heinrich Klaasen (16no off 7) smoked the Proteas to a stunning win.
De Kock said: "I said to Reeza afterwards that we did something special out there. I've been looking for a T20 century for a while and to do it at my home ground was something special."
South Africa raced to 92-0 after five overs and were then 149-0 after 10, with De Kock on 99 from 41 balls at the halfway stage of the chase and opening partner Hendricks 45 not out off 19.
De Kock top-edged behind in the 11th over shortly after completing his maiden T20I century; Rilee Rossouw (16 off 4) fell in the next having hit two sixes and a four; and Hendricks departed in the 13th as West Indies began to fight back.
South Africa's requirement was 41 from 24 balls after a 16th over in which David Miller (10) was dismissed by Jason Holder, only for Markram to hit two fours and a six in Raymon Reifer's 18-run 16th before Holder's 18th was flogged for 14 by Markram and Klaasen.
West Indies captain Rovman Powell said: "It was a pretty crazy game. When we came out to bowl we thought we had done enough. They applied the pressure from ball one and we didn't respond."
The Proteas surpassed both the previous international and domestic T20 run chase records on their way to 259, trumping Bulgaria's 246-4 to beat Serbia in June of last year and the 248-4 made by Central Districts against Otago in New Zealand's domestic competition in December 2016.
West Indies' tally of 22 sixes equalled the record in a men's T20 international, matching the number Afghanistan smashed against Ireland at Dehradun in 2019.
South Africa levelled the three-match series against West Indies at 1-1, with Tuesday's third and final fixture in Johannesburg, live on Sky Sports Cricket, now a decider.
