Quinton de Kock has had far weightier matters on his mind recently than to spend time worrying about the bowling attack of either Ireland, whom he’ll face at Willowmoore Park in Benoni tomorrow (10am), or Australia.
The 23-year-old tied the knot with now wife Sasha in Mauritius last week, and, while married life is treating him well, the busy cricket schedule of the next few weeks is, he admitted, a welcome distraction.
In fact, De Kock is itching to go once more, following that short break to exchange vows.
The Test series win against New Zealand remains fresh enough in his mind that the confidence gained from it is something he hopes to transfer to the next few weeks.
De Kock said he knows little about an Australian pace attack devoid of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who are being rested.
“I’ve watched one or two overs in the Big Bash but that’s different from what we’re going to play now,” said De Kock.
“It sounds like a good attack. Chris Tremain and (Joe) Mennie have done well in their domestic competitions.
“It’s not like they’re bringing guys against whom we can expect to chase down big scores or make big scores - they are Australian, so they’ll put up a hard fight.”
Before that, however, is tomorrow’s one-off ODI against Ireland in Benoni, a match South Africa coach Russell Domingo emphasised is garnering all his attention.
“We’ve not looked at the Australians. We are looking at Ireland, you can take nothing for granted in international cricket and once we’ve done the job against Ireland we’ll look at Australia.”
The Irish are without two key players owing to injury - experienced batsman Ed Joyce requires surgery to his knee, while lanky new-ball bowler Boyd Rankin is suffering from a stress fracture.
Nevertheless, in Niall and Kevin O’Brien, skipper William Porterfield and left-arm spinner George Dockrell, the Irish have some experienced campaigners.
“Most of them play on the county circuit, so they’ve been exposed to some good cricket. We are expecting a tough challenge,” said Farhaan Behardien, who came up against some of the Irish players during a recent stint for English county Leicester.
“We are not taking Ireland lightly. It’s an international match albeit a one-off game. We’ll be coming out with all guns blazing to try to create some synergy before the five games against Australia.”
South Africa have beaten the Irish in all four ODIs the teams have played.
In matches against the Test-playing nations, the Irish have beaten England, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
The Proteas last played Ireland at the 2015 World Cup, smashing them by 201 runs in Canberra.
De Kock is keen for South Africa to continue to play aggressively, something the players have spoken about at team meetings.
“If those 50/50 chances come we like to take the positive route - we don’t want to go into our shell. Instead of blocking out the game, we are trying to change the momentum onto our side,” said De Kock.
“When you play against the Aussies, they’re not going to be playing negatively, the English, New Zealand - all of the big teams have done very well and we have learned from that.”
Meanwhile, Chris Morris will be sidelined for a further two months owing to a chronic knee ailment which, according to SA team manager Mohamed Moosajee, has worsened in the past two weeks.
“He will take no part in the match against Ireland and the series against Australia and will target a return to international cricket for the Test series against Sri Lanka in December,” said Moosajee.
Dwaine Pretorius has been added to the squad for the five-match ODI series against Australia that starts in Centurion next Friday.
Saturday Star