Follow UsSouth Africa’s Quinton de Kock is regarded as one of the best wicketkeepers of modern-day cricket, and the 32-year-old showed everyone why by taking a superb high catch to get rid of Riyan Parag in Match 6 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on March 26 (Wednesday).
Asked to bat first, RR lost Sanju Samson early but stand-in skipper Parag was looking in dangerous touch. Playing on his home ground, Parag announced his arrival with a six-over-deep square leg off Harshit Rana and followed it up with another six, this time lofting Vaibhav Arora down the ground.
Ajinkya Rahane wasted no time and brought his premier spinner Varun Chakaravarthy into the attack in the seventh over but Parag was having none of it. The right-handed batter got a short delivery from Chakaravarthy and dispatched it over deep mic-wicket for this third six of the night.
Chakaravarthy, however, got his revenge in the same over. It was a length delivery from the KKR mystery spinner and Parag wanted to heave it out of the park, but got it off the toe-end of the bat. The ball went straight into the air, and it felt like Chakaravarthy would go for the catch himself.
However, the ball had gone miles in the air, and that gave de Kock ample time to come for the catch. That’s not it. The ball went so high that the South African had enough time to remove his helmet to get a clear sight of the ball, cover a bit of ground, and complete the catch. No helmet for a wicketkeeper makes it easier for him/her to see the ball when it goes high in the air.
Moeen Ali then dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal in the next over to put RR under even more pressure. This was only the second time he had been dismissed by a spinner in the IPL since 2024.