EARTH to Aussies: De Kock is coming, ready or not.

Quinton de Kock, that is, who batted his way out of the wet paper bag his recent form has been in the third one-day international against New Zealand in Hamilton yesterday.

Rain ended the match after 30.4 overs and with it a Series SA had won 2-0 on Friday. But not before De Kock had scored 80 not out in SA's total of 157-3.

His display erased the disappointment of a string of sorry scores in his past five ODIs - 26, nine, seven, two and one.

After facing a dozen balls yesterday, De Kock had scored as many runs in boundaries. In all, he hit 11 fours from the 94 balls he faced. But he also showed maturity and took on the responsibility of keeping SA going forward after they had been reduced to 70-3.

That caught the eye of AB de Villiers, who shared an unbroken stand of 87 with the left-hander.

"His last few games, he's probably not scored as many runs as he wanted to," De Villiers said. "But that tells a story about where he's at with his cricket. To still keep his head up high and still try and still work hard at his game, and come through with a decent knock was really important."

"In one of his first few games I realised he had that in him. I also thought he was a flashy player, going hard at the ball all the time. But then I realised he actually has the other side of the game as well.

"For a 21-year-old to have that in his game plan is amazing. I certainly didn't have it at his age."

High praise indeed, and the Australians - SA's opponents in three T20s and five ODIs starting next Wednesday - should take notice.