Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
TELLING someone they think less than their peers is unlikely to be taken as a compliment. Unless they are Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla is doing the talking.
“He probably doesn’t think about the game as much as the other guys,” Amla said of his opening partner in one-day internationals, the 21-year-old who has become SA’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batsman in the shorter formats.
“Which is a positive because you’ve got a lot of senior guys in the team who have a lot of games - myself, AB (de Villiers), JP (Duminy), Faf (do Plessis) ...”
If that sounds like De Kock has given those senior players plenty to think about in his 29 one-day internationals that’s because he has. For instance, in that list of quality players only De Villiers has a better strike rate.
“The way he plays is very refreshing; on his day he can obliterate an attack,” Amla said.
“He has been smart enough, which is a testament to his cricketing intuition, to adapt his game and not necessarily attack all the time. If I get off to a good start he understands that the partnership is the most important thing.”
De Kock scored five centuries in his first 19 innings in ODIs, and those five tons spanned 11 trips to the crease. It took Amla 30 ODIs to score the first five of his 16 centuries.
“The way he’s come in at such a young age and been so successful has been testament to how he approaches the game,” Amla said. “He’s a fearless cricketer, but he is also intelligent in the way he goes about his business.
“He’s going to go through a few ups and downs, but in the long term he is going to be a superstar for us.”
De Kock is, in fact, in the midst of one of those downs. In his last five ODI innings he has scored 45 runs - 26 of them in the second one-day international against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui that ended on Friday (SA time).
Amla survived being dropped on five and 12 to score 119 and spur SA to a total of 282/2. With Faf du Plessis, who made 67, he added 113 for the second wicket. Then Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Imran Tahir and De Villiers - that’s right, De Villiers - took two wickets to dismiss New Zealand for 210 and earn victory by 72 runs.
That gave SA the series 2-0 and rendered the last game in Hamilton on Monday irrelevant except as what the three matches were primarily intended as: preparation for the World Cup.
So De Kock will be happy for another chance to drown his run drought. But he found another way to shine last week by grabbing headlines from behind the stumps.
On Tuesday, in the first match of the series against New Zealand, also in Mount Maunganui, he reached 50 dismissals in his 27th ODI as a wicketkeeper; fewer than any other stumper in cricket history. Also, no wicketkeeper has removed more men from the crease than the six that De Kock sent packing on Tuesday.
However, wicketkeeping stats are not always what they seem. The next fastest to 50 dismissals are relative mediocrities - Ridley Jacobs, Geraint Jones and Jos Butler, who all got there in 30 games - and De Kock is the ninth ’keeper to effect six dismissals in an ODI innings. The feat has been accomplished 14 times, six of them by Adam Gilchrist.
Moreover, five of De Kock’s six of the best on Tuesday were routine or close to it. The exception was his low-flying, one-handed, leg-side effort to earn Nathan McCullum’s wicket for Ryan McLaren.
That reminded all who saw it of De Kock’s athleticism and commitment, which will serve him well as he smooths the still rough edges of his glovemanship.
The kid can play. Who cares how much he thinks?
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