South African stand-in skipper Aiden Markram believes soon-to-retire wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock is a “free-spirited man” who should be able to “fly”. The explosive lefthander hit 174 off 140 balls, his third century in five innings, to propel South Africa to 382/5 against Bangladesh before the Proteas sealed a resounding 149-run win on Tuesday. The Kock century was supplemented by fifties from Heinrich Klaasen (90; 49b) and Markram (60; 69b) as South Africa scored 144 runs in the last ten overs.
“We all know Quinton is the free-spirited guy that he is, but he actually has a fantastic cricket brain,” Markram told reporters in the post-match interaction.
De Kock, who had earlier said he would retire from ODIs after the World Cup, has now overtaken Virat Kohli (354) and is the leading run-scorer with 407 runs.
“And then you never really want to clip his wings. You just want to let him fly. He structures it exactly the way he feels (the) need, and we fully support that as a unit,” Markram added to.
Markram continued his rich praise for De Kock, saying: “He assesses the circumstances very well and communicates that to us off the field, even before we have started. It adds a lot of value in that respect.” Markram said making good decisions on the field has also been a driving force behind the team’s success.
“I know that word (process) gets thrown around a lot, but that’s really what it is. And like I said, for us as a batting unit, even as a bowling unit, we really try to take good options and make good decisions,” said Markram.
“If these options match the circumstances, we feel like we are in the match. “If we can do that for a longer period of time and progress every game then we hope that puts us in a good position,” he added.
If their defeat to the Netherlands batting second is brushed aside as a trifle in the bigger picture, South Africa’s campaign so far has perhaps been as impressive as India’s or even New Zealand’s for that matter – two of the strongest teams the Proteas have ever played. have yet to be confronted.
“Suppose peaking is a consequence of playing good cricket. And if we try to play good cricket every match, we can see where it takes us,” said Markram, who came in for Temba Bavuma for the second match in a row.
“But the things that we’ve done well, we’ve put a lot of emphasis on those things and those types of processes, for lack of a better word,” he said.
‘Don’t look too far ahead’
Despite being strongly placed to finish in the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals, Markram said South Africa – who did not do so in 2019 – would not want to look too far ahead.
“I think this is a pretty dangerous place to be, to be honest. I don’t think you want to get that far into math. There are four cricket matches left and that is potentially eight points up for grabs,” he said.
“That’s what we’ll try to push for. I think if you sit down and hope for a result from this team and try to figure out ‘maybe we just need two more wins’ or whatever it is. “I don’t think this is a great place to be as a unit,” he added.
Markram says there is no blueprint or plan, just basic knowledge developed in the players over time.
“Obviously you need wickets in hand, obviously, but we haven’t talked about a blueprint as a unit – it’s actually been quite a strange build-up over the last two months or maybe a little longer now,” Markram said.
“No definitive roles have been given, but everyone now knows roughly what they need to do to help this batting unit peak at its best. There isn’t necessarily a blueprint, but guys understand how to go about it,” he said.
‘I’m still trying to figure it out’
Markram said ODIs give batters more time to think, analyze and formulate an approach and he is still trying to ‘figure it out’ despite recording the fastest century for any batter in the World Cup in the match against Sri Lanka history has achieved.
“In 50-overs cricket there’s obviously a lot more time than I might have initially thought. You get the feel of the wicket and you might decide to pull the trigger a little bit earlier and then you get out and you’re 20 overs in the side and watch the other guys hit it and it eats away at you,” he said.
“I definitely had to go through those lessons to help me realize that there are gears you go through in 50-plus cricket… I had to experience that first hand to be able to learn a bit about it, but yeah, I’m trying now Still figuring it out, to be honest,” he added.
Topics mentioned in this article