Quinton de Kock is confident that the England defeat has not affected the Proteas’ World Cup ambitions.
De Kock was the shining light in their 104-run drubbing against England. His 74-ball 68 being the highlight of the Proteas’ innings.
Faf du Plessis explained in his post-match press conference that England dominated his side and it was clear that their understanding of the conditions at the Oval aided their control of the game.
The Proteas now take that knowledge gained into their game against Bangladesh at the same ground.
‘We know what is happening with the wicket now, so we should improve,’ said De Kock, confident that his side will bounce back.
‘But, saying that, we are against Bangladesh and we know how well they can play. They are a good team also. We will go back and assess from there.
‘This is just the beginning. It is not how you start a tournament, it is how you finish it. We started a long time ago.
‘We will go back to the drawing board and talk about what we can do better and what we did well.
“England had us under the pump from the start with bowling and batting. They are a good team. Now we must get ready and get back for Bangladesh.’
PREVIEW: Proteas vs Bangladesh
Like his captain, De Kock explained how the Hashim Amla incident affected the Proteas. He also revealed what the Proteas’ batting game plan was against the host nation and how it failed.
‘When Hash retired, it is almost like losing a wicket even though he was not out. That was tough and then we lost Aiden [Markram] quite early,’ he said.
‘We knew it would be tough for us and then Faf [Du Plessis] also went early. Jofra bowled outstandingly, with good wheels and then at the other end Chris Woakes hit a good length.
‘He [Archer] is the type of guy who is always looking to get wickets up front so we were trying to nullify that. Rassie and I were trying to bat through it, we were not worried about the score – we knew we could catch up.
‘It is a good wicket and the outfield is fast. We wanted to see how far we can go. We lost wickets at the wrong time and that did not help us.
‘We had a good partnership but we just kept losing wickets.’
The Proteas take on Bangladesh on Sunday at the Oval at 10:30 BST and 11:30 SAST.
De Kock has played six times against them and scored 331 runs at an average of 66.20. His second highest score, 168 not out, came against the Tigers in October 2017.
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Photo: Alex Davidson/Getty Images
