Quinton de Kock and the Blitzpatrolle
Quinny did a thing and he was supported by the middle order
It looks like Quinton de Kock saved his best ODI World Cup form for his last campaign.
The fielder at deep square leg thought he had a chance. He was mistaken. Quinton de Kock cleared him to register his seventh and last six of the game. With the maximum, de Kock reached 150 runs in ODI cricket. It is the third time he has done so. The first instance was in 2016 when he decimated the Australian attack, piling on 178 from 113 deliveries. He was imperious on the pull and unforgiving against the spinners.
13 months later, he passed 150 against Bangladesh in a one-sided encounter at the Kimberly Oval. De Kock and Hashim Amla put together an unbeaten 282-run opening stand to chase down Bangladesh’s 278 in 42.5 overs.
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It has taken de Kock another six years for de Kock to pass the 150-run mark. But, that is not the big story. Rather, de Kock played 17 ODI World Cup innings without recording a century and now he has reeled off three of them with relative ease, and he threw in a daddy hundred for control. De Kock went from not having a World Cup century to having the second-highest individual score by a South African batter at the showpiece after Gary Kirsten.
Like Klaasen’s monstrous knock against England, de Kock’s innings took a lot out of him. The Wankhede weather remains unforgiving. A younger de Kock would not have lasted two hours in the heat. In the same year that he made the King Edward VII and Gauteng Strikers first teams, he was a little on the chubby side. But, despite the excess weight, everyone was certain de Kock would do something special as a sportsperson.
A couple of Major League Baseball scouts wanted that special something to be in the MLB, so they offered him an opportunity to go for trials in the USA. They had watched him play for the Randburg Mets, where he paired up with Gift Ngoepe, the son of a domestic worker who lived in the Mets' clubhouse. De Kock and Ngoepe developed a close friendship, though their careers would grow in different directions. Ngoepe went on to play in the MLB as a second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates, while de Kock turned down the opportunity in favour of cricket.
The easy left-handed slugging from the diamond has not left him entirely. After passing 150, de Kock creamed 13 runs off the next three deliveries he faced. Three fours and a single. One of the boundaries was a baseball slog past the bowler's head. This is de Kock at his finest.
After putting the Bangladeshi bowlers to the sword, de Kock walked off the field feeling as he often did after the extra training his rugby coach made him do to get in shape. The coach made de Kock run around the rugby pitch with sandbags on his back. He was knackered. He was so beat he couldn’t field during Bangladesh’s batting innings.
The Blitzpatrolle
South Africa has one of the most potent middle orders in ODI cricket. Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller are a big reason why South Africa has an average of 54.12 (the third-highest average after New Zealand and India), at a strike rate of 102.22 in the middle overs and an unmatched average of 45.82 at an astronomical strike rate of 196.11 at the death.
The blitzpatrolle, as I am calling them for the time being, has been impressive this year. Here is a quick look at their numbers:
If Rassie van der Dussen’s style of batting is the personification of South Africa’s approach in one-day cricket, Heinrich Klaasen is the face of the Proteas’ middle-order destructiveness. No South African batter has hit more sixes than Klaasen this year. He has blasted the ball into the stands an incredible 40 times. David Miller is the next best with 27 maximums, followed by Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock on 24 each
15 of those 40 sixes have come from his five World Cup innings. Only Rohit Sharma (17) has the most sixes so far in the tournament. He is joint-second with de Kock. As it stands, Klaasen is sixth on the highest run-getters at the World Cup, with 288 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 150.79. That is the highest strike rate among the top 20 top-scorers.
Klaasen has been masterful at the death. He has a high score of 65 in four innings at the death at an average of 35.50 and a strike rate of 197.22.
Aiden Markram hasn’t been scoring as many sixes as Klaasen this year, but he has creamed more fours. He is leading South African batters on fours with 85 fours in 16 outings with the bat. 32 of those fours have come at the World Cup, and they are the third-most after Quinton de Kock (39) and Rohit Sharma (33).
He is currently eighth on the most runs list with 265 runs in five innings for an average of 53 at a strike rate of 123.83. His strike rate is the fourth-highest among the top 20 run-scorers at the World Cup so far. Markram has been outstanding in the middle overs where he averages 58.67 at a strike rate of 104.76. He has batted at the death in two of his five innings. In those times, he has averaged 41 at a strike rate of 241.18.
Markram and Klaasen have been so good South Africa hasn’t needed David Miller a lot. This year, Miller has played 19 matches, striking at 122.74 while averaging 52. At the World Cup, he is averaging 46 while striking at 128.97. Miller has appeared at the death three times for an average of 90 at a strike rate of 183.67. He has a high score of 39.
For years, South Africa has not had a useful number seven, and then they found Marco Jansen. What was once a three-man blitzpatrolle is now a four-member unit. The left-arm seamer is more than handy with the bat, as he showed in the match against England. Jansen is averaging 61.50 at a strike rate of 126.80. His average comes with caveats, there are a few not outs there, but his high score of 75 and high strike rate speak of the danger he poses down the order.
Jansen has a high score of 68 at the death. He averages 107 at a strike rate of 191.07 in the last 10 overs.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time… - CS