Quinton de Kock and Keaton Jennings meet again, this time as rivals

Quinton de Kock and Keaton Jennings. The guys born in Johannesburg were playing for the South Africa Under 19 team against England U19s on England soil in July 2011. Six years later around the same time of the year, de Kock and Jennings will be playing in the England v South Africa Test series on English soil but not as a pair, but as opponents.

It was Keaton Jennings who moved to the UK in 2012 to pursue a better career on the advice of his father Ray Jennings, who thought de Kock’s talent might prevent his son from finding a place in the Proteas senior team. De Kock and Keaton have been together since their school and have played for the same teams as teenagers and the Test series will be their first as opponents.

The left-handers together played in 14 Youth ODIs, 2 Youth T20Is and a couple of first-class matches till 2011 before Jennings moved to England and made his debut in International cricket during the recent Test series in India while de Kock started to represent South Africa at the International level since late 2012.

De Kock and Jennings have been the most successful pair in the Youth ODIs format for the South Africa U19 team as they have aggregated 532 runs in the 13 innings as a pair. QDK along with Chad Bowes have put on 479 runs for South Africa in U19 ODIs; the 2nd most behind De Kock-Jennings.

Most runs as a pair for South Africa in Youth ODIs:

The pair’s tally ranks at No.14 on the overall list but considering their score as the opening pair alone, stands them at No.7 with 517 runs as a pair in 12 innings. Indian duo of Ankush Bains and Akhil Herwadkar stand at the top of the list with 928 runs as an opening pair.

Most runs as an opening pair in Youth ODIs:

The pair was instrumental in the South Africa’s 13-match winning streak in Youth ODIs by providing consistent starts; the 4th longest streak for any team in the format behind India’s 24-match, 15-match and 14-match streaks in different periods.

Jennings was a decent player with the ball also as he took 12 wickets in the 16 Youth ODIs he played. Two of those wickets came with help of de Kock’s glove work as they together dismissed Daniel Bell-Drummond stumped and Sam Wood caught behind.