MI vs PBKS: Quinton de Kock Surpasses MS Dhoni And Rohit Sharma, Becomes 1st Foreign IPL Star to Achieve Major Feat

Quinton de Kock – he came, he saw and he conquered. Playing his first match of IPL 2026, Quinton de Kock slammed an unbeaten ton. De Kock’s 112* and a gritty 50 from Naman Dhir pulled Mumbai Indians out of the doldrums and lifted them to an under-par 195/6 against Punjab Kings in their Indian Premier League match here on Thursday. Confined to warming the bench so far, de Kock replaced Rohit Sharma and smashed his third IPL hundred to lead an inspirational fightback for the troubled Mumbai Indians, who had slipped to 15/2 in three overs and had their backs firmly pressed against the wall.

With the ton, de Kock surpassed MS Dhoni on the elite list of designated wicketkeepers in the IPL to have scored most 50-plus scores.

Most 50-plus scores by a designated wicketkeeper in the IPL

31 – KL Rahul

25 – Quinton de Kock*

24 – MS Dhoni

21 – Dinesh Karthik

21 – Rishabh Pant

20 – Sanju Samson

He is also the first overseas player to score a century for three different IPL teams.

Players to score hundreds for three IPL teams

KL Rahul – Punjab Kings, Lucknow Super Giants, Delhi Capitals

Sanju Samson – Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings

Quinton de Kock – Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians

De Kock’s 112* against PBKS is the highest score by any MI batter in the first innings of an IPL match. He broke the record held by Rohit Sharma (109 vs KKR, 2012). Sanath Jayasuriya‘s 114* against Chennai Super Kings remains the highest individual score by a Mumbai Indians batter in IPL history.

The veteran Proteas batter was in his element during his unbeaten ton – a 60-ball 112 not out (8x4s, 7x6s) and his first IPL hundred since 2022 – clobbering the ball powerfully on the leg side and picking boundaries with precision and terrific timing on the off side.

India and Punjab Kings pacer Arshdeep Singh (3/22) swung the ball prodigiously with immaculate lengths to snaffle two key wickets early on, while a third came late in the innings.

After beating Ryan Rickelton (2) persistently with deliveries that swung away from the left-hander, Arshdeep had the South African caught at deep square leg on a shortish ball. He was all over India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav (0), luring him outside off on the first ball and beating him with swing to have a thick edge flying to short third man.

With Suryakumar back in the hut and Tilak Varma (8) out of sorts, MI took a punt by promoting Dhir to No. 4, and the right-handed batter repaid the faith with a gutsy knock that required patience.

Dhir was also lucky when on 10, as Yuzvendra Chahal spilled a sitter at short fine leg off Marco Jansen in the fifth over. He was fortunate again when a misjudgement in calling for a single in the next over did not result in de Kock being run out at the non-striker’s end, as Shreyas Iyer missed the direct hit.

Mumbai Indians once again had an underwhelming powerplay – 48 for 2 – but the home camp was relieved that there was no further damage. The pair had already begun the rebuilding work, and from there on, neither de Kock nor Dhir put a foot wrong in their century stand.

De Kock and Dhir put on 132 off 68 balls in a robust third-wicket partnership that not only revived MI but also built a strong platform to push for a big total. However, the hosts could not manage to score at more than 10 runs an over.

With strong bottom-hand strokeplay, Dhir struck three sixes and as many fours, playing the perfect second fiddle to de Kock. The partnership ended immediately after Dhir completed his half-century, hitting one straight to long-off.

In the 18th over, Iyer had his arms spread wide in celebration after he caught the ball off Hardik Pandya (14) while airborne near the ropes at long-on and hurled it to Xavier Bartlett for a superbly executed catch.

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