Ken Borland

The message from captain AB de Villiers to Quinton de Kock was a simple instruction to try and not lose his wicket; the wicketkeeper/batsman did that and delivered so much more as his unbeaten century marshalled South Africa to a big total and ensured they capitalised on the great work of centurions Stephen Cook and Hashim Amla on the first day.

De Kock blasted 129 not out off 128 balls and ensured that the last three wickets added 139 runs, a memorable way to notch your maiden Test century and exactly what South Africa want from their wicketkeeper and number seven batsman.

“AB said I must just try and get a not out and the game changed after we lost Temba Bavuma. I decided that if there was any width, I would throw my hands at it and I was quite relieved to get my first Test hundred. But it’s just a start.

“After I was dropped the first time, I focused on stepping back into my game plan and I took a bit of a liking to Moeen Ali’s spin and tried to take him on. I’ve faced a lot of spin with the SA A side and in franchise cricket I also target the spinners, I don’t want to let them bog me down,” De Kock said on Saturday after England had reached 138 for two at stumps in reply to South Africa’s first innings of 475.

Although it is way too early to place the burden on De Kock of comparing him to Adam Gilchrist, the role the great Australian wicketkeeper/batsman pioneered is exactly what South Africa are banking on their 23-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman producing in the future.

“They used to call me ‘Gilly’ at the Highveld Lions and it’s falling into place for me at the moment. But it’s not just him I’d like to emulate, players like Matt Prior and Brad Haddin were also key batsmen who England and Australia relied on,” a typically unfazed De Kock said.

Since being dropped in Bangladesh after making a duck, part of a miserable 2015 that included his wretched World Cup and injuries, De Kock is hard on the comeback trail.

“It’s not a bad way to start the year after being dropped last year because I just wasn’t scoring runs. I was told to go and score some runs, but I was in a bad space then and I just didn’t care. I didn’t enjoy cricket for a bit, but life goes on and I carried on working, and then things change. I made runs and was enjoying the game again. It all fell into place, it was just about getting runs again and mentally, I was happy again,” De Kock explained.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who took four for 86 in South Africa’s innings, said they were hoping captain Alastair Cook could go on to a really big score on Sunday, having reached 67 not out at the close of the second day, his first half-century of the series.

“I think all three results are still possible and we were able to get through a tough patch with the bat this afternoon, we’ve done well to be only two down. Alastair has obviously struggled in this series and when he got to fifty it was almost like he’d scored a hundred because we were all so pleased for him. Hopefully he can go on tomorrow and make a big one.

“On the first morning the pitch was very slow but as the sun shone on it, it quickened up and there was a bit more pace in it today as well. But Nick Compton was very unlucky to get out to a ball that rolled, it’s the first one that’s misbehaved. Hopefully there aren’t any more on that length,” Stokes said.

Having reprieved both Stephen Cook (on 47) and Amla (on 5) on the first day, England dropped De Kock three times on the second day – on 28, 80 and 90.

“We realise we let them massively off the hook, allowed them to get that big score. Especially Amla, he really made us pay, good players do that. We expect to take those half-chances, but you just have to put it behind you and get on with it,” Stokes said.

Much like De Kock has put the first half of 2015 behind him and got on with scoring runs in his own uncomplicated, fluent manner as he enjoyed his day in the sun at Centurion on Saturday.

Graeme Smith

It’s very difficult to decide between AB and Virat. AB probably has more shots. He started out a bit like Jacques Kallis early on, being very technically correct, but now he hangs back in his crease waiting for the bowlers to come to him. He’s the sort of guy who can get a hundred in 50 balls.

Virat is also always looking to take the bowlers on, mentally he loves a contest – you can see that in how many times he has got India over the line, he has an outstanding fourth-innings record. He seems able to plan exactly how he wants to take a bowler on and he can kill you clinically. They are both outstanding batsmen.

Sunil Gavaskar

AB just seems to have a bit more time and he is so composed, so for me he is just that little bit better.

Virat can get out to what a bowler has done, whereas you see in this series that AB has only got out because of something the pitch did. But there is enormous pressure on Virat and he is a brilliant player with great intensity and understanding of the game. He’s at another level to the rest of his team and makes batting look very simple. He is a great talent.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-africa-sport/sa-cricket-sport/1790774/who-is-better-ab-de-villiers-or-virat-kohli/

Judging by AB de Villiers’ comments after the Champions Trophy fiasco, South Africa could go speeding towards the 2019 World Cup having still not addressed the elephant in the dressingroom which is their continued, inexplicable failure to perform at their best in ICC knockout matches.

The Proteas are scheduled to play just 36 more ODIs before the June 2019 World Cup in England; they have played 36 ODIs since midway through their series in India in October 2015, just to give some perspective as to how quickly time will fly before the next showpiece ICC tournament starts.

And yet De Villiers maintained after the horrible showing against India last weekend that there was no lack of composure and the run outs and batting failures were not due to a mental problem. Given the skill levels of the players involved, it’s difficult to know what else could be the explanation.

It is probably a good thing, though, that the Champions Trophy disaster is still fresh in the minds as CSA begin the process to decide on who will be the Proteas coach that will guide yet another attempt at the elusive holy grail for South African cricket.

Two former Proteas coaches – who were both involved in coaching capacities during India’s memorable 2011 World Cup triumph – in Gary Kirsten and Eric Simons will sit on the five-man committee that will evaluate the applications and both have been outspoken about the problems South African players have in handling the pressures of ICC knockout matches.

It is one of the unwritten laws of sport that the most successful teams are able to shift pressure on to their opposition; sadly for the Proteas, they seem to crush themselves by piling pressure on to their own shoulders. In between ICC events, they are able to play freely and express themselves, at world cups they play totally differently – tentative and fearful cricket. Reading De Villiers’ autobiography, it is clear he has a Moby Dick sized obsession with winning the World Cup, an unhealthy obsession that probably does more harm than good.

The big difference between De Villiers and Virat Kohli is how the Indian captain invariably makes big runs when they are most needed; his 96 not out in the Champions Trophy semi-final was yet another example of that.

Whoever the Proteas coach will be, he needs to be able to free up the players when it comes to the high-pressure situations. The players need to pledge to each other that they will not change their games in knockout matches and it is the captain and coach who have to drive that.

No team plays with a greater burden of expectation than India, and yet Kirsten and Simons were able to get them winning and expressing themselves when they won the World Cup on home soil under immense pressure.

Simons raised some interesting points in the aftermath of the Champions Trophy loss, both in the SuperSport studio and in a subsequent conversation I had with him.

He pointed out that the Proteas never tried to shift the pressure India exerted on them with an excellent display in the field, India were never asked to try anything different.

When I asked him why India are consistently able to handle the pressure and expectation at ICC knockout events, he said he felt it was because their international players had come through a system featuring millions of cricketers so they have spent their entire lives ensuring they are on top of their game, they are always playing under intense scrutiny and, in a developing nation still wracked by poverty, it’s do or die for many of them. Natural selection and survival of the fittest in many ways.

“It’s not just these 11 Proteas players who have had the problem. CSA need to sit down and decide what to do, what do our teams lack? Somehow the players have got to be freed up … we saw them play differently against India. There needs to be a broader conversation about why? The world is asking the question, it’s time we did too,” Simons said.

I have no doubt Simons will bring the same questions to the panel that will decide the coaching situation moving forward.

But the first step in sorting out a problem is admitting you have a problem. As Paddy Upton, who was the mental coach when India, Kirsten and Simons won the 2011 World Cup, has pointed out, it’s part of the South African macho man psyche to never admit our vulnerabilities.

That has to change.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20170617/282269550387810

It’s difficult to know exactly what’s eating AB de Villiers.

It’s not so much the lack of matchwinning performances we have become accustomed to from a true genius – his form has actually been solid, averaging 56 at a strike-rate of 105 in ODIs this year – but more the manner and timing of his dismissals as well as his general demeanour.

Some of his comments dismissing other cricketers have been most unlike a player known for his sportsmanship and generosity, although AB has always had a tendency to speak confidently, as if it will make it come true if he says something enough times with enough conviction.

Since his decision to take a sabbatical from Test cricket, De Villiers has failed to score a century. But are we reading too much into that decision, which was presumably (and hopefully) extremely difficult to make? He did of course suffer a long-term elbow injury – a serious ailment for a batsman – before deciding to ease his workload.

(Interestingly, there is some scientific evidence to suggest the sort of elbow injury De Villiers suffered is seen more often in batsmen under pressure, whether that be due to poor form or the importance of their innings, basically gripping the handle too tightly).

Apart from the elbow injury, the 33-year-old De Villiers, who has always been such a great athlete, has also begun to suffer back problems and now a hamstring niggle, all of which must contribute to the pressure he must feel operating under such expectation at the highest levels of international sport.

The mental pressures are probably greater than the physical workload and De Villiers’ awful strokes to get out in his two Champions Trophy failures are indicative of mental fatigue more than anything else. For a batsman of his quality to slap a wide delivery first ball straight to backward point speaks of the mind being elsewhere.

It’s a controversial precedent that Cricket South Africa have allowed in letting De Villiers miss the crucial Test series in England, but the key question is how are the Proteas management going to get the best out of one of the biggest trumpcards in world cricket through to 2019?

The first piece of the puzzle should be to make Faf du Plessis captain in all formats. Removing the ODI captaincy from De Villiers will no doubt be a great disappointment for someone who is as passionate about representing and leading his country as anyone, but I think the pressures of captaincy are making him sick.

In the field, De Villiers just seems harassed and under pressure, constantly consulting his bowlers and causing the Proteas to have problems with the over-rate police. Counter-intuitively, this all seems to happen while De Villiers sometimes sticks slavishly to plans despite the current situation on the field. Cases in point are the first 10 overs against Sri Lanka, when he did not make a bowling change despite the flood of runs, and the decision to recall the expensive Wayne Parnell just before the rain against Pakistan.

By contrast, Du Plessis just seems a more natural captain and things just seem to be more slick with him at the helm.

By unburdening De Villiers, we will be able to see whether we are dealing with just the vagaries of form or the gradual winding down of a great career.

Let’s not forget, similar questions were being asked of Hashim Amla not that long ago, and he has obviously answered them in the best way possible.

Let’s hope that the best talents of De Villiers will be a part of the Proteas for a long time to come. If that means a lessening of his work-load, wouldn’t it be worth it?

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20170610/282372629589258