It wasn’t his most fluent innings, but Faf du Plessis re-established himself in the Proteas Test side with a typically grafting display to record his fifth hundred against New Zealand on Sunday.
However, the 234-ball vigil will result in a dilemma for Proteas coach Russell Domingo and the rest of the selection panel when they sit down to pick the starting XI for November’s opening five-dayer against Australia in Perth.
Regular captain AB de Villiers will be back from injury by then and reclaim the leadership role from Du Plessis, with Stiaan van Zyl sure to make way in the middle-order.
But there’s the small matter of Quinton de Kock’s exciting knock of 82 off just 114 balls at Centurion on Saturday that has thrown a spanner in the works.
The young wicket-keeper was at pains to explain how tough it was to open the batting in the absence of Dean Elgar, who hurt his ankle the night before the Test and was ruled out for around four weeks.
“Opening the batting in Test cricket is an underrated job,” De Kock said. “It’s a different level of test, the different skills that you face aren’t the same as opening the batting in one-day and T20 cricket. With the ball moving around a lot, it tests out your technique and patience.
“I learnt a little bit about myself today, which is nice going forward, but I think it’s more for Dean (Elgar) and Stephen (Cook), I’ll stay there at six and seven.”
But De Kock may be forced to revisit that view following the success of Du Plessis and JP Duminy against the Black Caps. Both men came into the series decider with their Test careers on the line, having already been dropped during the England series in the summer.
They responded in gritty fashion, with Duminy finishing with a polished 88 off 158 balls (13x4), his first half-century since August 2014, while Du Plessis’ 112 not out (234 balls, 12x4, 2x6) came after his last hundred was in January 2015.
Du Plessis worked through a number of periods where he struggled to get the ball off the square, but stuck it out and was handsomely rewarded on his franchise home ground.
He will hope that he is now out of his “blockathon” mindset of the past 12 months, where he seemed to get bogged down and looked to just protect his wicket instead of playing scoring shots.
Duminy was the incumbent from the last England Test in January, but De Villiers’ injury saw Du Plessis drafted in to take over the captaincy.
With De Villiers set to replace Van Zyl, where does that leave Elgar? The hard-working left-hander appears to be in a settled opening partnership with Stephen Cook, but a closer look at his recent record may make De Kock the better option for the immediate future in the Australian Test series.
Since the beginning of last season, Elgar has scored just once above 50 – the 118 not out against England in Durban last December. He made a number of starts, with three scores in the 40s and two over 30, but couldn’t convert them into something substantial.
While Elgar doesn’t have a bad record during that period, there is certainly a strong case for De Kock to continue at the top of the order against Australia.
He was part of the Proteas’ first 100-run opening partnership with Cook since December 2013 by Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen, but more significantly, his quick rate of scoring can place the Aussies under pressure from the start of the innings.
De Kock may sometimes lose patience, as he did on Saturday by playing a lazy pull shot to be caught at fine leg and throw away a Test hundred. But his attacking style could come in handy against an Australian team that are coming off a 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka away from home.
Steve Smith’s team don’t have the strongest of pace-bowling attacks at the moment, with Mitchell Starc the only real threat, so De Kock’s ability to take the shine off the new ball by employing his naturally attacking mindset could set the game up perfectly for the array of stroke-players such as Hashim Amla, De Villiers, Duminy and Temba Bavuma.
De Kock looked really comfortable opening the batting against New Zealand, and with the Proteas having battled in the Test arena in recent times, perhaps such “out-of-the-box” thinking is needed to get the South Africans moving back up the rankings and becoming a force again in the longest format of the game.
They look well on their way to victory in the series decider at SuperSport Park after declaring on 481/8 off 154 overs, as Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn struck with the new ball late in the day to dismiss openers Martin Guptill (8) and Tom Latham (4) respectively, while Bavuma produced a brilliant bit of fielding to run out Ross Taylor for one after the right-hander set off for an ill-advised single to the leg-side.
New Zealand ended Sunday on 38/3 to trail by a mammoth 443 runs, and will hope that captain Kane Williamson (15) and Henry Nicholls (4) can bat for most of Monday if they are to have any chance of saving the Test.
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