SA vs ENG | Wicket will get more difficult to bat on with time, reckons Quinton de Kock

12/27/2019

South Africa International Quinton de Kock, who scored a 128-ball 95 on the series-opening day against England in Centurion, has revealed that the pitch going to get challenging with time. Hence, the wicketkeeper batsman deemed their score of 277/9, at Stumps on Day 1, a good enough score.

South Africa's 277/9 at the end of Day 1, courtesy the first ball dismissal by James Anderson and the following wickets taken by Stuart Broad and Sam Curran, might not have been their plan for the opening game at their fortress. However, de Kock reckons it to not be a bad total to sport on the board. He further revealed that the pitch was already behaving more challenging, than the time he started his innings, by the time he got out.

"If we get to 300, it's 50-50. Even at the moment it's 50-50. The wicket will get a little bit more difficult to bat on as the game goes on. When I walked in, until when I got out [in the 72nd over], the ball was still swinging around and it's still nipping. And the one end has definitely got more bounce than the other," de Kock was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

In his 128-ball 95, de Kock not only consolidated the innings but also accelerated it by hitting as many as 14 boundaries.

"I was trying to show some intent, get my head in the game and compete out there. When I started finding rhythm, it started happening," he concluded.