There will be a growing concern about Cook’s form
THE PROTEAS’ leading batsmen put in another good day’s work in the final warm-up at Glenelg ahead of the first Test against Australia in Perth next week, but there will be a growing concerns about the form of opener Stephen Cook.
Fellow opener Dean Elgar enjoyed some time in the middle, scoring 117 off 143 balls (12x4, 4x6) before he retired. Captain Faf du Plessis also registered a century (102 from 112 balls) after missing out in the day-night fixture last week against a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide. Du Plessis was particularly aggressive against spinner Tom Andrews – he reached his century with two consecutive sixes.
Elgar and Du Plessis combined for a 179-run fourthwicket partnership after the Proteas lost three early wickets. Cook was the first to depart after he edged a seaming delivery from David Grant.
He must’ve been disappointed, after his double failure against the pink ball last week when he only managed scores of five and 12. It follows scores of five, 97 not out, 31 and 14 in the Sunfoil Series before he left for Australia.
Cook, though, was not the only one to fall victim to Grant’s impressive opening spell as the 19-year-old produced a similar delivery to Hashim Amla (9) to illicit the same result.
Rilee Rossouw (22) did his chances of pushing for a place in the starting XI in the Test series opener no favours through his shot selection. But, despite the presence of a healthy slip cordon, he opened the face of his bat chasing an innocuous delivery slanted across him from Cameron Valente – straight into the hands of Sam Raphael at first slip.
Fellow left-hander Quinton de Kock, though, is seeing the ball as big as a watermelon, as he again blitzed 99 off just 94 balls to push the South Africans towards a total in the region of 500.
That he held out to mid-off trying to attack the spinner just one run shy of a three-figures would not have perturbed him, judging by his comments after his century last week. “It doesn’t bother me whether I score a duck or a hundred. To me, a warm-up game and a net is the same thing. When it comes to game time and focus time, I like to contribute where I can,” he said in Adelaide.
There were also starts for Temba Bavuma (43) and Vernon Philander (41, retired), with the former looking to convert his cameos into something meaningful come Testmatch time.
“It’s nice to be out there in a game situation, it beats the nets,” Bavuma said yesterday. “Personally, I’ve struggled a little. Playing at the Adelaide (Oval) and then coming and playing here at a club ground, it’s been contrasting conditions between the two.
“But for the other guys it’s been quite good and I’m sure as the tour goes on, things will get better. We’re not going to take too much out of the scores and the individual performances, it’s more how we want to go about playing our cricket.
“Not too much complacency will set in from our side based on the high scores,” he added.