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The 20-year-old left-hander produced another terrific, game-tilting exhibition of crisp and clean hitting on a fairly tired, challenging late-summer track at the Wanderers on Sunday to help his Lions franchise to the Ram Slam T20 Challenge title at the expense of neighbours the Titans in the final.
The Geoffrey Toyana-coached Lions, who also shared the earlier Momentum One Day Cup competition spoils with the Cape Cobras, triumphed by 30 runs and De Kock was top-scorer across either side with his almost always fluent and purposeful 44 off only 31 deliveries.
It ensured a precious, rollicking start for his side after they had won the toss on a surface that only got less and less suited to rosy strike rates at the crease as the game progressed.
He looked a notch higher than the rest for both adaptability to the conditions and urgency, and the innings not only ensured him the batsman-of-the-match award but pushed him well over the 500-run mark in the competition this season.
De Kock ended with a glowing 524 runs (apparently the new SA domestic record) at an average of 52.40 which is exceptional in the T20 format, and his strike rate of 145.55 also truly put him in the “blistering” category.
He was a country mile ahead of anyone else: next highest runs-scorer was the Cobras’ Dane Vilas on 389, whilst only Christiaan Jonker of the Warriors (311) and the Knights’ re-emerging Rilee Rossouw (307) also got past 300 runs for the T20 campaign.
De Kock bludgeoned 26 sixes and 44 fours in the competition, again leaving him effortlessly top of the respective “leaderboards”: Jonker got 15 sixes and Vilas 32 fours for the nearest-challenger accolades.
The rookie former SA U19 star was also responsible for the most talked-about knock of the franchise season when, near the start of the tournament, he dismantled the Cobras attack to the tune of 126 not out off 69 balls at Potchefstroom in a nine-wicket thrashing despite a high-scoring pattern on the day by both sides.
De Kock was a solid performer, if not as spectacular, in both other domestic competitions, registering an average of 46.58 in six Sunfoil Series appearances and 33.66 in the Momentum One Day Cup.
Increasingly, though, he is sending out the sort of signals to suggest his skills – even bearing in mind certain inevitable, lingering technical flaws – simply must be available to the Proteas’ one-day brew in both formats.
The higher and more testing the level he plays at, the quicker he will develop into the Full Monty as a match-winner, and it will come as a surprise if he misses the cut when the national selectors slash their provisional 30-strong squad to the eventual 15 needed for the ICC Champions Trophy in the UK during June.
As much as anything else, De Kock would be most useful to have around as quickly-available wicketkeeping back-up should AB de Villiers get injured.
The Lions phenomenon currently boasts three T20 international and four ODI caps, having offered glimpses rather than massive statements of his ability thus far.
I would argue that he is too good to sideline and, although such labels can be proved horribly premature and often fatal, it is difficult to counter those who suggest South Africa may have its very own “new Adam Gilchrist” in the making.
De Kock warrants a significant season-ticket now in national one-day greens ...
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
