NZ vs SA, 4th T20I - Covid 'sort of a saving grace in cricketing terms' for Connor Esterhuizen

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Very few people are able to find positives from the Covid-19 pandemic but South Africa’s newest wicketkeeper and top-order batter, Connor Esterhuizen, is one of those who can. The global pause, which stopped competitive sport for months in South Africa, ended up working to his advantage and is the reason he stuck to cricket.

“Covid was very important for me. It was sort of a saving grace in cricketing terms. Before Covid, at the back-end of my school career, I didn’t make the teams that I wanted to and that I thought I was good enough to make. I wasn’t sure if cricket was really for me or if I was good enough to play professionally or after school. And then Covid hit and it gave me a little bit of a break from the game,” Esterrhuizen said at the post-match press conference in Wellington, where he was Player of the Match for the fourth T20I against New Zealand.

“And then, I worked my way up from club cricket and university cricket into the Lions B team. I got my opportunity at Lions level and an opportunity here and there and then sort of played a little bit more throughout the last two years.”

Esterhuizen, who was schooled at St Johns College in Johannesburg, was not part of any representative age-group sides but made his provincial debut for Lions in 2022. Batting at No. 7, he scored a match-winning 52 off 58 balls in the domestic one-day cup. Since then he has worked his way into the top three, played for the South African A side, scored four hundreds in the most recent edition of the first-class competition and represented two SA20 franchises – MI Cape Town and Pretoria Capitals.

The growth in his game was rewarded with a call-up to the South African squad for this series and he is currently the leading run-scorer. “I’ve tried to take my game to another level. For most people the talent is always there, but it’s hard to use that talent and the decision-making that comes with it. That is the key the higher up you go in this game,” he said. “The second thing is just how to deal with failures, because this game is a game of failures. And when you succeed, you need to take it in. How to deal with those failures the higher you go will stand you in good stead.”

So far, Esterhuizen has had a mixed bad of success and failure on the New Zealand tour. He anchored South Africa’s chase of 91 with an unbeaten 45 in game one, and was then dismissed for 8 and 15 in matches two and three while trying to play big shots. “In the second game, I was maybe a bit defensive and didn’t have as much intent as I could have. And then the last game, maybe I was trying to play a shot a ball,” he said.

His 57 in the fourth match showed what he is capable of in a display of strong hitting down the ground and through the midwicket area. He was the only batter, on either side, to get past 32 and his improved application was a result of trusting his own game. “Whereas this innings I just tried to play what was in front of me, normal cricket shots, and waited for the ball in my area. That was the only difference.”

With all of South Africa’s first-choice line-up unavailable for this series, it may be difficult for Esterhuizen to see how he could fit into the bigger picture but being on this tour suggests he is part of a plan. At 24 years old, there is a big future ahead for him but for now, he is just enjoying the experience.

“I’ve loved every second of my first tour with the Proteas. The lessons I’d take are probably just how to deal with the pressure and the scrutiny,” he said. “I don’t think anyone masters how to deal with it but the more you do it, the more accustomed you come to it. That’s the main message that coach Shuks (Shukri Conrad) said to us before the tour, especially the newcomers, that we will need to experience the pressure, the scrutiny and that everything’s looked at through a microscope.”

The series is locked at 2-2 and will be decided in Wednesday’s final match in Christchurch.

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