Rampant De Kock eyes his third ton

Star tells how he dumped all old superstitions

WUNDERKIND Quinton de Kock was left almost licking his lips at the prospect of taking guard in tomorrow’s decisive fourth ODI against England at the Wanderers – a pitch famed for its true pace and bounce.

With the ball coming deliciously under the SuperSport Park floodlights on Tuesday night, De Kock gunned his second century of the series and looks set to continue in similar vein at the Johannesburg venue.

And the 23-year-old, who struggled last year, said he was focused on keeping his batting simple – something that showed in the 96 balls it took for him to get to 100.

He eventually finished with 135 from 117 balls, tangoing nicely with fellow centurion Hashim Amla, before spinner Adil Rashid claimed his prized wicket.

“I wasn’t thinking too much,” De Kock said.

“It was a good enough wicket: you could bowl a half-decent ball but it just had to go over the inner ring and it would go for four.

“It was about setting myself up from the outset and playing on from there.

“I don’t know what to expect at the Wanderers but when I get there I’m just going to do the same thing as I did on Tuesday night and in Bloemfontein.

“I’ll keep things simple and play the ball as I see it and on its merit. “That’s about it, really,” De Kock said. “That’s been the key for me, especially when I’ve scored big runs.

“I’ve tried not to play rash shots, unless we are chasing big totals. We’ve played on good wickets recently so we didn’t need to play high-risk shots.

“When I was going through my bad patch I was very superstitious but when I went on the tour to India I was playing freely and so didn’t care about my superstitions.

“I had over 20 things, like putting the right pad on before the left, I had to be sitting down, putting my helmet on before everything and a whole lot of stuff,” De Kock said .

“I’d scrape my mark with my left foot. But I’m done with that now.”

De Kock’s fearlessness, which saw him get three centuries against India in the summer of 2013 at home and two in the victorious ODI series against them away last year, has definitely returned.

Ahead of the crucial showdown in Johannesburg and with the Proteas still hobbling at 2-1 down in the five-match series, De Kock looks prime to add a third series century. He is hard to stop when in this mood. But since the end of last year’s disastrous World Cup, England have proven the most difficult team to put away in the ODI format.

They’ve posted totals of 300-plus six times out of the last eight matches they’ve batted first and chased down a 299 by Australia at home last year.

Joe Root has continued his exquisite test form and Ben Stokes remains irrepressible.

But De Kock dared them to do their worst at the ground famous for the world’s highest run-chase.

“As a team, we know we can score big totals,” he said.

“We’ve got to 400 a couple of times in the recent past and I reckon we have a good chance of chasing down 400 [again] one day, although hopefully we never have to do it.

“The conditions will be different at the Wanderers to Centurion and I don’t think it will reverse or be as dry as Centurion.”