VIDEO | Quinton de Kock survives early scare as ball hit stumps but doesn’t dislodge bails

De Kock is extremely fortunate to have his captain’s confidence amidst the poor run of form that the southpaw is experiencing at the moment. After his hasty decision to walk off the pitch in Durban, which later revealed to be a not-out, he pretty much opened the gates for South Africa’s flurry of dismissals, it was understandable that the player was quite unsettled ahead of the second ODI in Centurion.

An early collapse was the main reason why the hosts couldn’t post a target over 300 on a batting friendly pitch at Kingsmead. The opener was already under pressure to prevent such a calamity this time around and when India asked South Africa to bat first again in the second ODI, this time with even Faf du Plessis absent, de Kock was surely not in the highest of spirits. With Hashim Amla dealing with Bhuvneshwar Kumar well in the first over, de Kock came into strike next over with Bumrah bowling.

And his nerves were evident as he decided to defend Bumrah’s back of a length outside off delivery extremely late. Consequently, he experienced an uncomfortable bounce that went past him after hitting his bat and the ball then spun back towards the wickets, before it just hit the leg-stump. However, it's pace was taken off in all this and the ball appeared to just gently kiss the stumps, soft enough not to dislodge the bails.

De Kock let a huge sigh of relief after having a look at it following his abrupt attempt to prevent it. However, he returned to the pavilion after scoring just 20 runs in a Yuzvendra Chahal ball, 11 overs later