Proteas fired up for Ireland

SA using Benoni match as momentum builder for series with Australia

QUINTON de Kock has had far weightier matters on his mind recently than worrying about the bowling attacks of either Ireland, whom he’ll face at Willowmoore Park tomorrow, or Australia.

The 23-year-old tied the knot with fiancée Sasha in Mauritius last week, and although married life has so far treated him well, the busy cricket schedule of the next few weeks will be a welcome distraction.

In fact, De Kock is itching to play after that short break to exchange vows. The Test-series win against New Zealand remains fresh enough in his mind that the confidence gained from it is something he hopes to take with him into the next few weeks.

De Kock said he knew little about the Australian pace attack, which is without Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who are both being rested.

“I’ve watched one or two overs in the Big Bash but that’s different from what we’re going to play now,” he said.

“It sounds like a good attack. Chris Tremain and (Joe) Mennie have done well in their domestic competitions. It’s not like they’re bringing guys against whom we can expect to chase down big scores or make big scores. They are Australian, so they’ll put up a hard fight.”

Before that, however, is tomorrow’s one-off one-day international against Ireland in Benoni, a match that South Africa’s coach Russell Domingo said was garnering all his attention. “We’ve not looked at the Australians. We are looking at Ireland. You can take nothing for granted in international cricket, and once we’ve done the job against Ireland we’ll look at Australia.”

The Irish are without two key players owing to injury. Experienced batsman Ed Joyce requires surgery to his knee, and lanky new-ball bowler Boyd Rankin is suffering with a stress fracture.

Nevertheless, in Niall and Kevin O’Brien, skipper William Porterfield and left-arm spinner George Dockrell, the Irish have some experienced campaigners.

“Most of them play on the county circuit, so they’ve been exposed to some good cricket. We’re expecting a tough challenge,” said Farhaan Behardien, who came up against some of the Irish players during a recent stint for English county Leicester.

“We are not taking Ireland lightly. It’s an international match, albeit a one-off game. We’ll be coming out full guns blazing to try and create some synergy before the five games against Australia.”

South Africa have beaten the Irish in all four ODIs that the teams have played. In matches against the Test-playing nations, the Irish have beaten England, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. The Proteas last played Ireland at last year’s World Cup, smashing them by 201 runs in Canberra.

De Kock is keen for South Africa to continue to play aggressively, something the players have spoken about at team meetings. “If those 50-50 chances come, we like to take the positive route. We don’t want to go into our shells. Instead of blocking out the game, we are trying to change the momentum on to our side,” he said.

“When you play against the Aussies, they’re not going to be playing negatively. The English, New Zealand, all the big teams have done very well and we’ve learnt from that.”

Meanwhile, Chris Morris will be sidelined for a further two months owing to a chronic knee ailment which, according to the South African team manager Mohamed Moosajee, has worsened in the past two weeks.

“He will take no part in the match against Ireland or the series against Australia, and will target a return to international cricket for the Test series against Sri Lanka in December,” said Moosajee.

Dwaine Pretorius has been added to the squad for the five-match ODI series against Australia, which starts next Friday.