Rilee gets his golden ducks in a row

Rilee Rossouw should cheer up. Yes, he is the one South African and only the second player overall to have suffered golden ducks in his first two innings in one-day internationals. But it could get worse. Sort of.

On debut against Zimbabwe in Harare two weeks ago, Rossouw opened the batting, nudged the fourth ball (his first) of the match to mid-off, set off for a single that never was, and was run out by Malcolm Waller's direct hit.

Eight days later, Rossouw sat and watched Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock take the shotgun approach to Zimbabwe's bowling in their opening stand of 142.

But they were dismissed in the space of 15 deliveries, the latter by Prosper Utseya.

Then Utseya did, with the first ball Rossouw faced, what he had not done in a career of 10 years and 157 previous ODIs in which he had bowled 8169 deliveries: he turned one. Better yet, he turned it sharply and found steep bounce.

What else could the left-hander do but edge it to slip.

Utseya reverted to type with his next delivery, one that never spun at all. Instead, it thudded into David Miller's pads to complete only the second hat-trick in Zimbabwe's ODI history.

That was about as small as mercies get. At least the focus was off Rossouw and on Utseya, flat on his back flinging his arms and legs in the air as if he just didn't care.

Nathan McCullum knows how Rossouw feels. The New Zealander is the only other player to have been dismissed first ball in his first two ODIs. Considering 2171 players have earned one-day international caps, that puts Rossouw and McCullum in the top - or is it the bottom? - 0.09212 percentile.

At the other end of the scale, Kepler Wessels in 109 ODI innings for Australia and SA, was not once dismissed without scoring.

So, why should Rossouw cheer up? In 1989, a dumpy kid was out for nought in his first two ODIs.

Another 450 innings later, Sachin Tendulkar owned 18426 runs.

And, yes, it really could get a lot worse. Shadab Kabir of Pakistan, Canada's Nick de Groot, Zimbabwean Tinashe Panyangara and Irishman Peter Gillespie are the only players to record ducks in their first three ODI innings.

The Proteas play Zimbabwe today in Harare. Maybe Rossouw will get a chance for redemption.