South Africa’s white-ball skipper Temba Bavuma has come out in support of wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock after the cricketer found himself under the scanner for the controversial run-out of Pakistan’s batsman Fakhar Zaman.
Quinton de Kock created a stir in the cricket fraternity during the 2nd ODI against Pakistan after he tricked Fakhar Zaman in a controversial manner. Zaman was left heart-broken after he was run-out 7 runs short of a well-deserved maiden ODI double-hundred.
The controversial run-out came on the first delivery of the final over after Zaman hit the ball towards the cover boundary. Zaman was trying to complete his second run however he was undone by a direct hit from deep by Aiden Markram. However, later the reviews showed that de Kock tricked Zaman by raising his hands and signaling towards the non-striker’s end. Zaman slowed down to look back at the non-striker’s end and de Kock dismantled the wickets at the striker’s end.
His run-out has triggered the ‘spirit of cricket’ debate in the cricket fraternity with several cricketers talking about the dismissal.
The latest one to give his opinion about the controversial dismissal is South Africa’s white-ball skipper Temba, who thinks that it was very clever from de Kock as he picked an important wicket. He also believes that de Kock didn’t break any rule by that dismissal. He said:
“It was quite clever from Quinny. Maybe some people might criticise it for maybe not being in the spirit of the game. But it was an important wicket for us. Zaman was getting close to our target. Yeah, it was clever from Quinny,”
He added:
“You’ve always got to look for ways especially when things are not going your way, got to find ways to turn the momentum around. Quinny did that – I don’t think he broke the rules in any kind of way. It was a clever piece of cricket,”
