Almost 40km separates Centurion from the Wanderers‚ but the echo of Quinton de Kock’s magnificent innings at the former on Friday will resound around the latter on Sunday.
De Kock’s 178 in the first one-day international against Australia steered SA to victory by six wickets.
The teams will clash again at the Wanderers on Sunday and the focus will be firmly on De Kock.
With questions being asked about the strength of SA’s batting in the absence of AB de Villiers‚ who is out of the series with an elbow injury‚ and Hashim Amla‚ who missed Friday’s game because of flu‚ De Kock delivered the second-highest score by a South African in an ODI.
But he was more than willing to share the spotlight.
“I’m counting on a few more wickets like that in this series‚ then hopefully we can have some more fun‚” De Kock said after Friday’s game.
“And not just me - a couple of the other boys in the team.
“The guys are confident enough to know that they can take away games themselves.
“They have their own ways of doing it and they’ve done it.
“AB and Hash just make it seem a lot easier than other guys.”
Not that it looked difficult for De Kock‚ who lashed his runs off 113 balls and hit 16 fours and 11 sixes in what he called “the most free knock I’ve played”.
Even Australian captain Steve Smith was impressed: “That was pretty good‚ wasn’t it?
“It felt like every ball was going to the boundary at one point.
“That was one hell of an innings.”
A pitch that seemed to gain pace under lights‚ a lightning fast outfield and thin air that allowed the ball to fly far made conditions perfect for aggressive batting at Centurion.
Sunday’s match is a day game‚ but the Wanderers should present similar opportunities for batsmen - and the same stiff challenge for bowlers.
“We’ve got to be tighter with our lines and get our lengths right‚” Smith said.
“That’s what I talked about before we went out on the field and we just weren’t able to execute well enough.
“We’ve got to try and turn that around quickly or we’ll see another display like that on Sunday.”
Andile Phehlukwayo is perhaps the only bowler in either team who won’t approach Sunday’s match with trepidation.
He bowled within himself and maintained impressive discipline to take 4/44 on Friday‚ which was only his second ODI.
TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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