Quinton de Kock hopes the Proteas’ T20I series defeat to the West Indies is a good omen for them ahead of the World Cup.
South Africa face Sri Lanka in their World Cup opener next Monday. But coach Rob Walter’s manne didn’t have the best warm-ups heading into the opener, losing the three-match series to the Windies 2-0 before last night’s final match.
But veteran opening batsman De Kock reckons it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
With a number of their World Cup stars still involved in the India Premier League, South Africa sent an under-strength team, including exciting youngster Nqaba Peter who bagged 2/32 on debut in the second match, to do battle with the Windies in Jamaica.
And De Kock says of the outcome: “[I don’t have any] concerns [about the result], we don’t really have a full-strength team [here]. I’m not saying it’s an excuse, but I think throughout my whole international career we’ve won every series going into a World Cup and we’ve never won the World Cup.
“Speaking from experience, I don’t know if this will do something good for us. Hopefully it does.
“For me it [the series defeat] doesn’t mean much. I’m just hoping some of the guys going to the World Cup get some confidence going into the tournament.”
SA lost the first match on Friday by 28 runs, with Reeza Hendricks scoring 87 as they were bowled out for just 147 in pursuit of the Windies’ 175/8.
On Saturday, they then went down by 16 runs, scoring 191/7 (De Kock 41, Hendricks 34 and Rassie van der Dussen 30; Gudakesh Motiee 3/22) in reply to the Windies’ 207/7 (Roston Chase 67*, Brandon King 32 and Kyle Mayers 32; Peter 2/32).