De Kock is ‘vital’, but don’t tell him that

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

DO not tell Quinton de Kock what we all know and what he might have realised himself: that he is an important part of SA’s team. And that’s on the captain’s orders.

“We know he’s capable of scoring big hundreds but we know he hasn’t played for a while,” AB de Villiers said on Saturday in Port Elizabeth, where SA play the fourth one-day international against West Indies on Sunday.

“I don’t want him to feel any pressure. I don’t want him to feel like he’s become a vital player to us, even though he has.”

For players of De Kock’s incandescence, pressure comes standard. He has scored six centuries and four half-centuries in his 35 innings, an outrageous success rate for any opening batsman much less a 22-year-old.

Next month’s World Cup is surely his oyster. At least, it was until he tore ankle ligaments and was ruled out for up to 12 weeks. He was originally due to return after SA’s first two games in the tournament. Then the last ODI against West Indies at Centurion on Wednesday was mooted as his comeback.

But on Saturday the theory that he would play for SA A in their 50-over match against the England Lions in Bloemfontein on Sunday tantalised cricketminded South Africans.

“That’s nowhere near the truth,” SA A coach Vinnie Barnes said. “Dane Vilas is my keeper.”

Such is the fuss over De Kock that baseless rumours about him quickly grow wings. De Villiers explained why.

“He’s a wonderfully gifted cricket player. He’s just got to go out there and play the game - that’s when he’s at his most dangerous. He’s a natural ballplayer.”

De Kock will not be the only notable absentee on Sunday. What with SA having clinched the series last Wednesday, the last two games are relegated to little more than practice ahead of the World Cup.

So the West Indians will not have to put up with Dale Steyn again on their tour, while Hashim Amla will be rested on Sunday. Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel could also be left out - making room for Wayne Parnell and Kyle Abbott - while Morne van Wyk will be behind the stumps leaving De Villiers free to direct the traffic.

“It’s different; I won’t say it’s easier or more difficult,” De Villiers said of captaining while also keeping wicket, which has done in all three ODIs because of De Kock’s injury.

Middle order lynchpin JP Duminy, who is freshly back from his latest battle with an ongoing knee problem, has faced just 17 balls in the series. What chance he will jump the queue to the top on Sunday?

“The order will probably stay the same unless we have a situation like we did the other night (in East London last Wednesday, when West Indies were dismissed for 122) and we aren’t chasing a big score.”

De Villiers bridled at suggestions that Duminy would go to the World Cup undercooked.

“It’s the same for every team,” he said. “I don’t see James Faulkner batting in the top three for Australia. That’s your job batting at seven or eight, from six to nine - you’re not always going to bat.

“In the IPL (Indian Premier League), I bat where I want to bat six times out of 16 games. You take what you get, you play the situation you’re confronted with and you prepare accordingly. That’s all you can do.”

But, for all the chopping and changing, De Villiers was mindful that “there’s nothing more powerful than winning games of cricket, especially leading up to that all important World Cup”.

Windies captain Jason Holder faced no such dilemma: “We’re unlikely to make changes. It’s about salvaging some pride.”