The first of the two-T20I series between South Africa and Bangladesh saw a bizarre incident on the cricket field. When South African openers came out to bat, they were seen wearing the same jersey. Quinton de Kock wore the jersey with Hashim Amla’s name written on the back. This incident surprised and confused the fans at the same time. Later, commentators revealed the reason behind De Kock wearing Amla’s jersey.
The wicketkeeper-batsman had lost his T20I jersey before the match and Amla was kind enough to lend De Kock his jersey when he came out to bat against Bangladesh. However, the dynamic duo could not string a significant partnership between them this time. Amla got out for 3 runs to Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan. De Kock, though, did justice to his teammate’s jersey and stitched a match-winning partnership with AB de Villiers.
Twitterati seemed rather amused by the ‘double-Amla’ jersey incident. Here’s how they reacted –
I’m late, why is de Kock wearing Amla’s jersey?
— Nhlanhla abaso (@_NhlanhlaMabaso) October 26, 2017
#SAvBAN de kock’s jersey is allegedly been stolen…i mean by who how like it doesn’t make sense
— Theo_bae (@Theodrinephala2) October 26, 2017
Amla is Out. But still batting.
(de Kock playing with Amla’ jersey)#SAvBAN— Tom Chandler ⚓️ (@SrJ1911) October 26, 2017
De Kock is wearing jersey number 1, I thought that was Amla’s number #SSCricket #SAvBAN
— Lucky Sizwe (@Luckybiyela) October 26, 2017
Two Amla’s’batting… For a minute I thought Amla was left handed lol. De Kock is wearing Amla jersey.
— Mpho Mokoena (@fussball21) October 26, 2017
Why Kock wore Amla’s jersey? Why, we don’r wanna face two Amla who. Amla gone but Amla is there!#BANvsSA #SAvsBAN
— Shahrukh Parvez (@shaurav71) October 26, 2017
De Kock scored his second T20I fifty in the match against Bangladesh. The 24-year-old got out to Rubel Hossain in the end but not before scoring 59 runs from 44 balls with the help of 5 fours and 1 six at a strike rate of 134.09. On the other hand, De Villiers scored 47 runs from 27 balls. Surprisingly, he did not hit a single six in the innings. David Miller and Farhaan Behardien scored 25 runs and 36 runs respectively. The first innings score of the Proteas was 195 for 4.
Bangladesh were not up for the challenge as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Opener Soumya Sarkar was the top scorer from Bangladesh with 47 runs from 31 balls. Lower down the order, Mohammad Saifuddin kept running out of partners during his innings of 39 runs from 27 balls. Saifuddin remained unbeaten as Bangladesh fell short of 20 runs while chasing the target. De Villiers was adjudged ‘Man of the Match’ for his quickfire innings.
