De Kock shakes off injury to boost Proteas’ chances

QUINTON de Kock batted through the pain of a damaged finger to bolster South Africa with a defiant 90 as the deciding Test against New Zealand was evenly-poised at the end of the second day in Hamilton yesterday.

New Zealand were 67 without loss at stumps, with Tom Latham on 42 and Jeet Raval on 25 in reply to the Proteas’ 314.

De Kock, playing with damaged ligaments in his right index finger, went to the middle with South Africa on 148/5 and he held the innings together while the bottom half of the batting order added a further 166.

Proteas’ batting coach, Neil McKenzie, described De Kock as “a unique player” who needed painkillers to get through the day.

“There’s a few tablets, anti-inflammatories and that sort of stuff, but Quinton doesn’t mind he just gets on with it.”

Latham put his string of low scores behind him to ensure a positive start to New Zealand’s reply. Bowling coach Shane Jurgensen said: “I think the game’s evenly poised. The two openers have set us up with a good start”.

Just as De Kock’s 91 in the first innings in Wellington set South Africa up for an eight-wicket victory, he again tormented New Zealand with his trouble-free approach. His 90 came off only 118 balls, and he hit 11 fours and two huge sixes, one off New Zealand’s best-performing bowler, Matt Henry, and another off Jeetan Patel.

But 10 runs short of his century he played across the line to Neil Wagner and was out lbw.

SA resumed the day at 123/4 and after Henry removed Temba Bavuma for 29, Faf du Plessis progressed to 53 before a smart piece of fielding by Latham at short-leg led to his dismissal. Off Mitch Santner’s opening over, Latham anticipated Du Plessis was going to sweep and before the shot was played, he moved to his right where he flung out an arm to take the catch.

Latham took another classy catch, just above ground level to his right at second slip to remove Vernon Philander for 11 off Henry.

The pace bowler equalled his career-best figures of 4/93, while Neil Wagner ended with 3/104. — AFP