De Kock plays down potency of SA’s top six

Quinton de Kock isn’t buying into the theory that given Australia’s supposed weakness against spin, the Proteas should simply select both of their front-line spinners for Thursday’s World Cup clash in Lucknow, regardless of conditions.

Recent evidence, produced by South Africa, suggests there is merit to such a ploy, with the turnaround in the series between the two teams in SA the result of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi tying the Australians in knots in the third ODI in Potchefstroom. That track spun more than either team imagined, but it was the Proteas who had the weapons to make it work in their favour.

That Australia then struggled in a pre-World Cup series against India, because of the home team’s spinners, and then lost their opening match of the tournament to the host nation on a turning track in Chennai, lent further credence to the theory. 

But De Kock wasn’t buying it. “I think most other teams would have struggled because obviously the Indians have got a really good spin-bowling attack. I’ve played against a lot of these guys — guys like Warner, Smith, Marnus, Maxi — these guys play spin really well in general,” he said. 

The option did merit the selectors’ attention, De Kock said. However, South Africa have been careful to pay attention to conditions.

The Ekana Cricket Stadium hasn’t hosted a lot of international matches, and though it is home to an IPL team — for whom De Kock has played the past two years — the Proteas won’t want to rely too much on data from T20 matches. 

In addition, the venue’s entire square was dug up after this year’s IPL and there’s a new groundsman looking after things, who is under instruction to provide surfaces that allow for entertaining cricket — which in India means good for batting. 

In their opening match against Sri Lanka in Delhi, the Proteas ignored history, which indicated an average score of 240, and bashed their way to a total north of 400, with De Kock one of three centurions in that innings.

The rest of the competition has had their interest piqued, with the Proteas top six suddenly the talk of the tournament.

“I think we’re doing really well as a batting unit. We’ve worked hard on our game in the last couple of years. It’s only one game into the World Cup, so it’s hard to say how we’re really going,” said De Kock.

Pakistan’s successful pursuit of the highest World Cup target, also against Sri Lanka, on Tuesday provided some context to South Africa’s opening win.

“Even though it’s gone really well in our last few games, it hasn’t been over the course of a few years. It’s only been over a month or a couple of months,” De Kock said.

“So yeah, I think for us to be one of the best [batting line-ups], we still need to be a bit more consistent, especially in tight games like World Cups. That will determine how good we are.”

The Proteas will face a better attack in Lucknow than Sri Lanka’s and arguably a better attack than the one Australia fielded in the recent series in South Africa. Mitchell Starc became just the fifth bowler to claim 50 World Cup wickets last week in Chennai, while Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood round out an experienced seam trio.

Notwithstanding the excellent batting conditions in the Indian capital, South Africa’s bowling still has lots of room for improvement and will certainly be tested by a batting line-up that put them under pressure in the recent series between the teams.