MANY words have been used to describe Quinton de Kock's spectacular performance in the Proteas' one-day series against India. But before Wednesday "lucky" was not among them.

But that did not stop Ishant Sharma from resorting to the L-word after India were spared what looked like another thrashing.

"He's been quite lucky," Sharma said. "He's hit the ball between fielders, he's had some top edges."

That's rich coming from a bowler who needed 70 ODIs to claim 100 wickets. At least Sharma had the satisfaction of dismissing De Kock on Wednesday - but only after he had added an innings of 101 to the 106 and 135 he scored at Kingsmead and the Wanderers.

But what did De Kock think of Ishant's theory?

"He's telling the truth. I was dropped twice today [Wednesday], and I wasn't very happy with myself."

He has not shied away from hitting the ball in the air, but the naked numbers prove he has middled it more often than not.

Sharma would probably have us believe he is disappointed not to be able to continue his tussle with the tyro in the test series, which starts at the Wanderers on Wednesday. De Kock is not part of the test squad, what with AB de Villiers and Thami Tsolekile ahead of him in the wicketkeeping queue in the longer format. De Kock's only error came when he started celebrating catching Virat Kohli off Morne Morkel at the Wanderers before he had actually caught the ball, which then spilled to earth.