SHANE Warne and Adam Gilchrist. Jonty Rhodes and Kepler Wessels. Muttiah Muralitharan and everyone who bowled with him.
Cricket is not short on players who seem connected only by contrast but find a way to win together.
Warne and Gilchrist hardly shared a word off the field, not least because Gilchrist breakfasted at about the same time Warne went to bed. Rhodes was a Duracell bunny. Wessels was the epitome of stoicism. Anyone who tried to bowl like “Murali” would have dislocated a shoulder.
Now the names of Hashim Amla – thoughtful, efficient and polished – and Quinton de Kock – instinctive, emphatic and unfiltered – must be added to that list of unidentical twins.
Not quite 17 months after De Kock first walked out with Amla to open the innings, they are among SA’s most successful partnership for the first wicket.
Barring injury or a moment of selectorial madness, the sacred and the profane will kickstart SA’s innings in the second match of the ODI series against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo today.
After only 14 innings they have 876 runs in their joint account.
Only six SA opening pairs have done better than that, all of them with the help of significantly more trips to the crease.
Top of the pile are Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith, who batted 74 times together for their grand total of 3007 runs.
Amla and De Kock are sandwiched between AB de Villiers and Smith, who between them scored 1168 runs in 25 innings, and Boeta Dippenaar and Smith, who shared 698 runs in their 22 stands.
The way Amla and De Kock brushed aside the Zimbabwe bowlers’ challenge in the first match of the series in Bulawayo on Sunday, when they shared 109 runs out of SA’s total of 309/3, a leap up that ladder in the remaining two games seems more probable than possible.
“There’s a bit of chemistry between myself and ‘Quinny’; we get on quite well,” Amla said after his undefeated 122 put SA on the path to victory by 93 runs on Sunday.
“He is quite an entertaining guy to bat with. He is extremely attacking but also quite smart in the way he plays his game. It’s not just reckless shots; it’s quite calculated strokemaking.
“If he gets off to a good start, it gives me time to build that partnership with him. If I get off to a good start, it gives him a bit of leeway to settle in.”
After 20 ODI innings, De Kock owns five centuries. He scored 63 on Sunday, marking the first time he has passed 50 without going on to a hundred.
He scored the first of his tons against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last November – less than four months after returning from Sri Lanka having scraped together 63 runs in three innings.
“We all knew he was an exceptionally talented player from the domestic scene,” said Amla.
Does Amla have to reel De Kock in sometimes?
“He doesn’t listen to me.”
If the Zimbabweans are as lacklustre today as they were on Sunday, Amla and De Kock could put a winning total on the board on their own. However, De Villiers refused to nod in that silly direction.
“As long as I am captain I want to win as many games as possible for the team,” he said. “If we do win the next one, we would like to experiment a little bit in that last game. But we will play our best XI in the next game.”
Batting duo to set off Proteas fire
Cricket is not short on players who seem connected only by contrast but find a way to win together.
Warne and Gilchrist hardly shared a word off the field, not least because Gilchrist breakfasted at about the same time Warne went to bed. Rhodes was a Duracell bunny. Wessels was the epitome of stoicism. Anyone who tried to bowl like “Murali” would have dislocated a shoulder.
Now the names of Hashim Amla – thoughtful, efficient and polished – and Quinton de Kock – instinctive, emphatic and unfiltered – must be added to that list of unidentical twins.
Not quite 17 months after De Kock first walked out with Amla to open the innings, they are among SA’s most successful partnership for the first wicket.
Barring injury or a moment of selectorial madness, the sacred and the profane will kickstart SA’s innings in the second match of the ODI series against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo today.
After only 14 innings they have 876 runs in their joint account.
Only six SA opening pairs have done better than that, all of them with the help of significantly more trips to the crease.
Top of the pile are Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith, who batted 74 times together for their grand total of 3007 runs.
Amla and De Kock are sandwiched between AB de Villiers and Smith, who between them scored 1168 runs in 25 innings, and Boeta Dippenaar and Smith, who shared 698 runs in their 22 stands.
The way Amla and De Kock brushed aside the Zimbabwe bowlers’ challenge in the first match of the series in Bulawayo on Sunday, when they shared 109 runs out of SA’s total of 309/3, a leap up that ladder in the remaining two games seems more probable than possible.
“There’s a bit of chemistry between myself and ‘Quinny’; we get on quite well,” Amla said after his undefeated 122 put SA on the path to victory by 93 runs on Sunday.
“He is quite an entertaining guy to bat with. He is extremely attacking but also quite smart in the way he plays his game. It’s not just reckless shots; it’s quite calculated strokemaking.
“If he gets off to a good start, it gives me time to build that partnership with him. If I get off to a good start, it gives him a bit of leeway to settle in.”
After 20 ODI innings, De Kock owns five centuries. He scored 63 on Sunday, marking the first time he has passed 50 without going on to a hundred.
He scored the first of his tons against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last November – less than four months after returning from Sri Lanka having scraped together 63 runs in three innings.
“We all knew he was an exceptionally talented player from the domestic scene,” said Amla.
Does Amla have to reel De Kock in sometimes?
“He doesn’t listen to me.”
If the Zimbabweans are as lacklustre today as they were on Sunday, Amla and De Kock could put a winning total on the board on their own. However, De Villiers refused to nod in that silly direction.
“As long as I am captain I want to win as many games as possible for the team,” he said. “If we do win the next one, we would like to experiment a little bit in that last game. But we will play our best XI in the next game.”
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