The new Proteas limited-overs captain Quinton de Kock says the 3-0 whitewash of Australia in the recent ODI series was the standout moment of a rather disappointing summer of cricket.

South Africa suffered a heavy 3-1 Test series defeat by England before bowing to defeat in the T20 series as well. The ODI series was shared 1-1 after England grabbed victory in the third and final clash at the Wanderers.

That was followed by another T20 series defeat, this time at the hands of Australia, who in the first and third encounter were miles ahead of De Kock’s team.

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But, with a younger and slightly less-experienced team, the Proteas put Aaron Finch’s men to the sword in the three ODIs, claiming big wins in Paarl, Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom.

‘The highlight in general was our series against Australia,’ said De Kock.

‘We had quite a young team and they had quite a powerhouse one. Playing against one of the best ODI teams in the world and for us to beat them 3-0 was probably the biggest highlight.’

Mark Boucher, who took over the reins as head coach a mere two weeks before the Test series against England got under way in December, made it clear from the start he was going to give a lot of old and new players the chance to show their worth in the limited-overs series.

De Kock, though, feels that there were times where the Proteas played good cricket despite the results not going the Proteas’ way for the majority of the time.

‘I think we played pretty well, to be honest. The Test matches were disappointing but the rest of the time we played really good cricket. When you play against a team like England, even though we lost, we played some exciting cricket.

‘It always difficult to beat a team like England, they are on top of the world right now and they’re one of the strongest teams to play against. It was just disappointing we didn’t get enough wins like we wanted to,’ the wicketkeeper said.

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