De Kock rescues faltering Proteas
QUINTON DE KOCK spared the home team some blushes on the first day with a typically effervescent innings in the second Test at St Georges Park in Port Elizabeth yesterday.
De Kock, pictured, Aiden Markram and to a lesser extent Kagiso Rabada aside, yesterday was another desperate effort by the Proteas batsmen on a pitch with some seam movement but nothing that should have led to two mini collapses – one at the start of the day and another in the middle session.
Faf du Plessis had won the toss, with the hosts making one change to the team that lost so dramatically at Kingsmead last Saturday with Wiaan Mulder making his debut in place of the injured Vernon Philander.
Du Plessis had barely completed his duties at the toss, when he was back in the middle batting as SA slumped to 15/3 by the seventh over. Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla were both bowled by left-arm paceman Vishwa Fernando, while Temba Bavuma – batting at No 4 – was run out attempting a single that was never on.
Markram and the SA captain set about a rescue mission adding 58 for the fourth wicket.
Du Plessis was workmanlike in making his way to 25 before he was dismissed in the over before lunch, bowled by opposite number Dimuth Karunaratne.
There followed a breezy 40 minutes after lunch as De Kock and Markram counter-punched adding 57 runs for the fifth wicket with Markram registering a sixth Test half century. His wicket in the 38th over, started the second mini-collapse of the innings with SA losing three wickets for 27 runs in 29 balls, all the wickets falling to the lanky right hander Kasun Rajitha. Markram scored 60 and was trapped lbw. Mulder hit a pair of nice boundaries but was also trapped lbw by a delivery slanting into him, while Keshav Maharaj was undone by one that moved away. Rabada lent De Kock some much needed support as the hosts sought respectability.
De Kock tried another big shot against Dhananjaya de Silva’s parttime off-spin and was bowled for 86.
Rabada made 22, with his eighthwicket partnership of 59 with De Kock crucial in helping the Proteas surpass the 200-run mark against Sri Lanka.
Fernando and Rajitha each claimed three wickets apiece in what was another disciplined display with the ball from the tourists, although had SA shown greater application, there is no way the visiting bowlers would have had their feet up with 90 minutes still to play on the first day.
In that period, the home team’s bowlers wrested away some of Sri Lanka’s initiative picking up three wickets. Duanne Olivier claimed the scalps of Oshada Fernando for a duck and Kushal Mendis for 16, and Rabada had Karunaratne caught behind by De Kock after he scored 17. Those wickets kept the hosts in contention, but they will have to bowl well today to earn any sort of advantage on the first innings following another mediocre effort with the bat.