When we're in the mood for philosophy, we turn to thinkers. Not doers. Quinton de Kock is firmly among the latter, but he came up with a, well, winner of a thought in an audio file CSA released on Wednesday: "The only way to maintain a winning streak is to keep winning. That is the only way. Not by losing."
SOUTH AFRICA TOUR OF WEST INDIES, 2021
South Africa, West Indies seek batting improvements
With neither batting order functioning properly, there is no telling which way the fourth T20I will go but West Indies will be desperate to level the series. © AFP
Although that's hardly deep or profound, it's difficult to imagine Plato, Nietzsche or Confucius disagreeing with De Kock. If the test of a philosophical statement is whether or not it is true, South Africa's wicketkeeper-batter can't be faulted.
Not that the South Africans can be said, seriously, to be on a winning streak. They've beaten West Indies in the last two of the three T20Is with another two to come, and so they could clinch the series in Grenada on Thursday. But, even though they have won four of their five matches since arriving in the Caribbean, they are not out of the woods they disappeared into in the 2020/21 season - when they were victorious in only one of the six series they played across the formats. And, in De Kock's defence, it should be noted that he was answering a question, not positing a theory.
But he was given the chance to do so because he and his teammates are performing significantly better than they were a few months ago. That's what happens when you win: people don't ask you about losing, which they do when you lose. Again, neither deep nor profound. But this is cricket. Not Plato, Nietzsche or Confucius. Win and everything's OK, including a batting line-up that has not reached 170 in any of the T20Is.
The visitors' exemplary attack has more than off-set that deficiency. Tabraiz Shamsi has lived up to his billing as the top-ranked bowler in the format by limiting the damage to 4.66 runs, and Anrich Nortje isn't far behind on 6.60. Part of their success is tied to South Africa having maintained the impressive standards they set in the field during the Test series. The only West Indian bowler who has competed at the level of Shamsi and Nortje is Obed McCoy, who has an economy rate of 6.41 for the rubber and is the series' leading wicket-taker with seven strikes. So, not for the first time, South Africa have their bowlers and fielders to thank for the advantage they take into Thursday's match.
Of course, it's not as if West Indies have been batting up a storm lately. They did in
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