Quinton de Kock smashed a 44-ball 100 in his team's incredible victory in Centurion ©AFP
Along with the bowling, Johnson Charles and Quinton de Kock rubbished one of cricket's oldest chestnuts in Centurion on Sunday. Trust me, you've heard this before: the first-class game is the bedrock on which all good and true things must be built. Deviate from that dictum and you are doomed to disappointment.
The logic is that no cricketer, particularly those who bat for a living, can hope to succeed unless they have mastered the skills demanded in matches scheduled for at least three consecutive days.
Charles played all manner of strokes in his 46-ball 118. His third century in the format but his first at international level flew off 39 balls, the fastest by a West Indian and joint second-fastest in T20I history. Had Johnson got there in five fewer deliveries he would have broken the world record.
Many of the shots Johnson played didn't strain the envelope of the emphatic as much as rip it up. Most were also ripped in another way, too: from the pages of what the fogeys regard as the copyrighted first-class playbook. De Kock's
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