Kallis, Pollock add insult to injury

By G. Viswanath

CENTURION, NOV. 25. The Indians were sent on a leather hunt, first by Jacques Kallis and later by skipper Shaun Pollock. The two came up with outstanding knocks that pleased the thousands of South African supporters, but tested the patience and wits of the Indians.

The entertaining part of the day's proceedings was provided by Pollock (113 batting) who cleared the billboards on the fence seven times before the second spell of rain brought an end to Sunday's play with 14 overs left. Pollock, who has two Test centuries to his credit with both scored in the last 12 months, made a hundred in just a little over two hours.

The majority of Pollock's runs - 78 to be precise - came off boundaries, evoking admiration from even the most discerning of spectators. When rain came in a torrent at the Super Sport Park, South Africa's first innings score was 566 for eight, 334 ahead of India's 232. Half an hour's time will be made up on Monday morning.

There is a special quality in Kallis, which even his skipper would admit, that separates him from the average players. There are very few batsmen who have his class and calibre among the 10 Test playing nations. Kallis approaches batting based on the simple but strong fundamentals of the game, and has been able to demonstrate his talent even against some of the highly competitive cricketers. He provided so much joy and pleasure while carving out a century on the third day of the Castle Lager/MTN five-day `first class' game.

It was on the back of Kallis' superlative innings of 110 that South Africa rode before skipper Pollock's blitzkrieg forced Dravid to position nine fielders on the boundary line.

Kallis looked patchy in the two prominent knocks he played in the Test matches at Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. He made 68 in the first Test and 89 not out in the second before the circumstances (rain) compelled Pollock to close the South African second innings. Another 11 runs would have seen Kallis notch up his 10th Test hundred but that was not to be. However, Kallis did not see it as an opportunity denied to him and accepted Pollock's decision in the interest of the team.

Making a hundred in a Test is always a special feeling and Kallis deserves to bask in the glory as he has always tamed rival attacks. Naturally, he went ecstatic after whipping Venkatesh Prasad to the midwicket fence to bring up his hundred, a feat that is not likely to be recorded as an official one in his international career.

When play resumed on the third day, Lance Klusener (Neil McKenzie had been dismissed in the fourth ball of the last over bowled by Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday) hit some lusty blows off Tendulkar and Javagal Srinath, but what was engaging was the tussle between Kallis and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. Clearly, the batsman won the battle before skipper Dravid claimed the second new ball after the completion of the 94th over and after 36 runs had been added by Kallis and Klusener to the overnight score of 261.

Kallis began to dominate Harbhajan right from the first over he bowled today. His first shot was a superb cover drive, perhaps the only shot he hit against the spin. His next four in the same over (and the second of the morning) was a real cracker with Kallis coming down the pitch to loft Harbhajan. It might have appeared flashy, but Kallis was in complete control of the shot. It was his eighth boundary, a stroke that took him past 50 in over two hours of batting.

Klusener was his typical self, taking chances and managing to hit the ball hard. He was lucky as an inside edge off Srinath missed the stumps by a whisker. The left-hander deflected the Indian fast bowler to the backward square-leg boundary beating Ashish Nehra and then smashed him straight down the ground when the ball was pitched on the slot. But Srinath finally had him as he opened the face of the bat and edged to Laxman.

For six minutes short of five hours, Kallis demonstrated the perfect art of batting while the mighty and powerful blows came from Pollock.

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