De Kock's return overshadowed by spirited Namibia

And just like that in Windhoek on Saturday, Quinton de Kock had some idea how Donald Bradman must have felt more than 77 years ago at The Oval.

Bradman took guard in what became his final Test innings, in August 1948, needing four runs to become the first - and to date the only - player to retire with an average of 100. The world was watching, or would have been had cricket been available on almost every screen near you like it is today.

De Kock took guard having spent the previous 468 days in the international wilderness. His previous match for the Proteas was the T20 World Cup final against India in Barbados in June last year.

Saturday's game wasn't as available for viewing as others, but cricket-minded South Africans would have sought it out. They needed reasons to believe De Kock's heart and mind, and his skill, was still in it after more than a year of franchise faffing about.

De Kock opened the batting with Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who took a single wide of mid-on off Gerhard Erasmus' first ball of the match. De Kock blocked the second delivery, pulled the third to midwicket for one, and patted the fifth back to Erasmus along the ground.

What should have been the last ball of the over veered towards leg. De Kock took a meaty swipe and missed, and the delivery was called wide.

Erasmus skipped in again and pitched a touch short on middle and leg. De Kock loaded up for another mighty pull, a stroke that has earned a disproportionate amount of his runs, and unleashed.

It seems the ball didn't get the memo. Instead of screaming over the midwicket boundary and into the sellout crowd of 5,000 at the grand opening of the Namibia Cricket Ground, the result of the mistimed stroke was a pathetic parabola in the air. The ball seemed to hang for all of those 468 days and flew flaccidly to backward square leg, where Ruben Trumpelmann bagged the blooper effortlessly.

De Kock, never the most emotional player, unless he is told to take a knee, tucked his bat under his arm, removed his helmet and gloves, and left without so much as a backward glance.

In 1948, the theory sprung up that Bradman didn't see the last ball he faced for Australia because he had tears in his eyes. He had been roared and backslapped from the dressing room to the boundary by a standing ovation, and the England players saluted him with three cheers and doffed their caps. Bradman always denied the fuss had made him emotional. That wouldn't have been very Australian, would it?

De Kock wasn't welcomed back to the international crease with any ceremony. He left in similarly prosaic fashion. Never the most emotional player - unless he is told to take a knee - he removed his helmet and gloves, and left without so much as a backward glance. No doubt because he can reasonably expect to be back.

It was a strange beginning to a strange match - a one-off T20I between teams who had never met before in any format played on a sluggish pitch and a slow outfield, and in front of a pavilion built askew to the wicket.

The home side, who were ranked 11 places below their guests going into the game, gave themselves a fighting chance by reducing their neighbouring big brothers to 68/5 on their way to a total of 134/8.

Namibia's reply was scrappy but feisty, and an increasingly raucous crowd was swept up in a drama that reached its final over with 11 needed. Zane Green launched Andile Simelane's first offering over long-on for six, and he and Trumpelmann gathered four off the next four balls. That left one to get off the last, which Green muscled through midwicket for four to seal victory by four wickets.

Because of other commitments - Aiden Markram was due to lead South Africa in the first Test in Lahore 13-and-a-half hours after the end of this match - the visitors' XI was a long way from the best they could have fielded. Best you don't say anything of the sort in Windhoek's bars for the next year or five.

Having sent down a hattrick of wides to Erasmus in the sixth, Coetzee produced a fearsome bouncer that Erasmus did well to evade and had De Kock leaping behind the stumps. Coetzee walked back to his mark, but then told his captain, Donovan Ferreira, that he couldn't continue.

"He will undergo further assessment upon his return home," team management said. Coetzee will hope the damage isn't enough to rule him out of the white-ball section of South Africa's tour to Pakistan. He was selected in both squads for the six matches, which will be played from October 18 to November 8.

Pakistan played their first Test more than four years after Bradman played his last. His only two innings in Asia were against "Ceylon" in Colombo in April 1930 and March 1948. He scored 40 in the first and 20 in the second. That's a long way from 99.94.

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