Pretorius and De Kock shine, but rest of Proteas batters fall away in first ODI in Faisalabad

Half-centuries from openers Quinton de Kock and Lhuan-dre Pretorius set up the Proteas’ total of 263 in the first ODI against Pakistan in Faisalabad on Tuesday.

Pretorius was one of three ODI debutants alongside Sinethemba Qeshile and Donovan Ferreira. It was also a debut for De Kock 2.0 with the veteran opener playing his first ODI since “retiring” after the 2023 World Cup semi-final against Australia in Kolkata.

Pretorius, 19 was fulfilling a dream by walking out to open the innings for the Proteas with his childhood hero De Kock. The pair found an immediate rhythm with the teenager being the initial aggressor, striking the ball powerfully square of the wicket and down the ground. 

De Kock took a touch longer to find his groove, but broke the shackles when he brought up the Proteas’ 50 in some style with a six over long-off.

Pretorius continued to strike the ball powerfully square of the wicket and down the ground. He raced to a maiden ODI 50 off 47 balls (7 x 4, 1 x 6).

But his debut innings and the 98-run partnership came to a close when Saim Ayub floated a delivery outside the off stump that tempted Pretorius into a drive, but he could only manage to find Mohammad Nawaz at point.

De Kock, though, moved through the gears to bring up his 31st ODI half-century off only 50 balls. 

But the Faisalabad pitch was beginning to get slower which made stroke-making more difficult. De Kock chopped on a Naseem Shah delivery, while Tony de Zorzi looked promising for his 18 off 20 balls, but Saim Ayub got a delivery to hold up in the surface which found De Zorzi's leading edge to be caught and bowled.  

Qeshile also looked confident is his debut ODI innings and formed a sprightly 44-run partnership off just 46 balls with his Warriors teammate and Proteas stand-in skipper Matthew Breetzke.

But the trend of Proteas' batters getting in, and then getting out, continued with Qeshile departing for 22 off 23 balls, while captain Matthew Breetzke could not make the most of a no-ball reprieve to be caught on the boundary for 42 (54 balls). 

A middle-order collapse ensured with the Proteas slipping from 191/3 to 209/6 as Pakistan took control through Naseem Shah (3/40) and Abrar Ahmed (3/53). Ahmed almost became the seventh Pakistani bowler to take an ODI hat-trick when he dismissed Donovan Ferreira and Bjorn Fortuin with successive deliveries. 

New batter Lungi Ngidi was adjudged LBW on the hat-trick delivery, sending the Faisalabad crowd into a frenzy, but Ngidi reviewed and the decision was overturned due the tailender edging the ball into his pads.

It was a crucial decision as it allowed Corbin Bosch (41 off 40 balls) to strike some lusty blows to push the Proteas up to a competitive target.