“When we walked off the field ‘KG’ said they’re 10 runs short.” – Reeza Hendricks
Telford Vice / Cape Town
ALONG with the bowling, Johnson Charles and Quinton de Kock rubbished one of cricket’s oldest chestnuts in Centurion on Sunday. Trust me, you’ve heard this before: the first-class game is the bedrock on which all good and true things must be built. Deviate from that dictum and you are doomed to disappointment.
The logic is that no cricketer, particularly those who bat for a living, can hope to succeed unless they have mastered the skills demanded in matches scheduled for at least three consecutive days.
Charles played all manner of strokes in his 46-ball 118. His third century in the format but his first at international level flew off 39 balls, the fastest by a West Indian and joint second-fastest in T20I history. Had Johnson got there in five fewer deliveries he would have broken the world record.
Many of the shots he played didn’t strain the envelope of the emphatic as much as rip it up. Most were also ripped in another way: from the pages of what the fogeys regard as the copyrighted first-class playbook. De Kock’s 44-ball 100, his first century for South Africa in the format and his sixth in T20s, also shimmered with audacity and orthodoxy in equal measure. It was also his first century for South Africa in the format and his sixth in T20s. He broke his own record for South Africa’s fastest 50 by getting there in 15 deliveries.
Charles and De Kock reeled off what would have seemed, to the hapless few fated to have to bowl to them, a series of punchlines without jokes. Here’s another — Charles last played any first-class cricket in December 2016 and De Kock in February 2018, not counting Tests.
Charles has yet to earn a Test cap, which is not surprising considering he has a first-class average of 20.79 with one century and three 50s after 65 innings. De Kock played his 54th and final Test in December 2021. He retired with six hundreds and 22 half-centuries from 91 trips to the crease.
For all the pyrotechnics of the 10 fours and 11 sixes that lit Charles’ innings, the stroke that will stick in the memory was his most exquisitely delicate: he shimmied far outside off to Marco Jansen in the 14th, aimed little more than a top edge at the ball, and deflected it deftly through fine leg for four.
De Kock’s finest shot was a crisp, contained punch down the ground for four off Sheldon Cottrell. It was one of nine boundaries he hit to go with his eight sixes, and it was unveiled with only the eighth ball he faced.
Charles isn’t a Test or even a noted first-class player and De Kock has made clear his preference for pyjamas over whites. And yet they essayed their innings in the grand and ancient manner, only with more elegance and excellence than has in the past been enough to hail performances as exceptional. In the space of one Sunday afternoon Charles and De Kock took batting in any kind of cricket to a level it has rarely been, if ever. Where does all that leave the fogeys?
“Cricket shots will always be cricket shots, because we’re playing cricket,” Charles told a press conference. “It’s not as if you could play a football shot in a cricket match. Guys are constantly evolving and learning how to go forward. It’s a beautiful sight. I’d love to see the game 10 years from now.”
Charles has played 40 T20Is but he featured in none from September 2016 to October last year. That was in the wake of reaching 50 just twice in his previous 20 innings. His explanation for how he ended his six-year absence from the side offered further evidence that success in the format is about playing properly: “I’ve changed my game in that I’ve gone back to the basics, made sure that I’ve got that on the down low. It’s worked for me. If I continue to do that I’ll continue having great innings.”
He did acknowledge that “with such a good pitch and on a small field you don’t have to over-hit the ball”, but staving off the urge to do so takes discipline. Kyle Mayers and Charles delivered a masterclass in exactly that in their 58-ball stand of 135. Reeza Hendricks and De Kock followed their lead and shared 152 off 65.
On another day Hendricks’ 68 off 28 — a strike rate of 242.85 — would have won the match. On Sunday this comparatively understated performance all but flew under the radar. Aiden Markram referenced Hendricks’ batting in his television interview: “You talk about playing attacking cricket but that doesn’t mean you have to slog everything.” Also on television, De Kock had praise for his partner: “He was quite the silent assassin. We said to each other after he got out [in the 13th], ‘Jeez, we’ve done something special’.”
In his presser, Hendricks — cramp kept De Kock in the dressing room — fought his own corner: “T20 allows for normal cricket shots. It’s still your normal strokeplay. You don’t have to go out there and swing from the hips from ball one. T20 still allows for good cricket. Everyone who contributed today played really good cricket shots.”
And they realised 517 runs, the highest aggregate in the 2,032 men’s T20Is yet played. Only six first innings have surpassed West Indies’ 258/5. No reply has been bigger than South Africa’s 259/4, reached with seven balls to spare. No team have hit more sixes in an innings than the Windies’ 22. No match at this level has delivered more sixes than Sunday’s 35, nor more fours than its 46. Never has a greater chunk of the runs in a T20I been hit in fours and sixes: 76.21%.
“When we walked off the field [after West Indies’ innings] ‘KG’ said they’re 10 runs short,” Hendricks said. That drew parallels with Jacques Kallis’ comment during the innings break in a famous ODI at the Wanderers in June 2006, when Australia put up a then world record total of 434/4: “The bowlers have done their job. It’s up to the batters now.” South Africa replied with 438/9 with a ball remaining. Now the T20I version of South Africa’s team have their own magical number to celebrate. “I would say it’s equivalent to the 438 game, so to be part of it is a big deal,” Hendricks said.
Rovman Powell described the afternoon’s events as “pretty, pretty crazy”, and the madness was still swirling in the smoke thrown by the post-match fireworks when Bob Marley’s voice rang out over the ground: “Every little thing is going to be alright.” A member of the groundstaff danced in time to the music as he collected the circular white markers denoting the 30-metre circle on the outfield. He looked happy with what his and his colleagues’ efforts had produced, and so he should have. Everything was indeed alright.
Cricbuzz
Bulletproof Truth 