Complacency won't do in World Cup quest: 'I'd do anything not to go to Zim,' says Proteas' De Kock

Quinton de Kock is one Protea - and in all likelihood not the only one - who is not planning on travelling to Zimbabwe in June for the ICC World Cup qualifying tournament.

Instead, he has given the assurance that he will do everything in his power to help guide South Africa to the two victories required against the Netherlands this weekend to book a direct passage to India for the 50-over showpiece in India later this year.

That they find themselves in this position is down to some erratic form in the ODI Super League, the mechanism used to determine automatic qualification.

It necessitates sweeping their opponents aside twice in order to end on 98 points and move into the magical eighth position on the log. The Proteas are currently in 10th place.

"At the very least I'm going to go out and give my absolute best not to go to Zim for the qualifiers," De Kock said on Thursday ahead of Friday's second ODI at Willowmoore Park in Benoni.

The opening game of the series back in 2021 was, in fact, rained off and the series postponed because of Omicron variant concerns.

"If I had any opportunity of avoiding that situation I would give everything to do just that. I'm pretty sure the rest of my teammates are in the exact frame of mind. They want to make sure they rock up at 100% intensity and be ready to go."

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While back-to-back victories are non-negotiable, the Proteas need to pay specific attention to their over-rate because falling foul of the ICC's time limits for innings means a point deduction.

South Africa have already lost two log points because of such offences twice, including earlier this year in the third ODI against England in Kimberley.

Ironically, had