Double delight in sight
6 Feb 2010
After steering South Africa to a commanding 291-2, Jacques Kallis is edging ever-closer to his maiden double-century.
You couldn’t have predicted a day-end score after watching the opening half hour. India had the Proteas on the rack at 6-2 with two soft dismissals bringing two new batsmen to the crease.
The battling Ashwell Prince was unlucky to be given out when a fierce Zaheer Khan-bouncer ballooned off his armguard into the clutches of MS Dhoni. Graeme Smith failed to move his feet to a delivery that was just short of a length. Zaheer celebrated as the South African captain departed, the sight of Smith’s shattered stumps giving the disappointing crowd something to crow about. South Africa were in trouble.
Kallis joined Hashim Amla in the middle, and from there the spectators were treated to a great display of composed batting. Amla played the anchor role while Kallis counter-attacked, lofting the Indian spinners into the sparsely-populated stands.
The Proteas pair continued to dominate in the second session where Kallis notched up his century. Amla scored slowly, but was always in control, and after the final drinks break in the third session, the Proteas No 3 claimed his eighth Test hundred.
The Indians will regret several missed chances in the field while the South Africans will want to push home their advantage on day two. According to the pitch report, this Nagpur track will play well on the first three days. If South Africa can amass a total of 500-plus, India will be under pressure to save the Test.
Together, Amla and Kallis have scored 285 for the third wicket. Kallis is often criticised for his failure to surpass the 200-mark, but he’s knocking on the door in Nagpur.
This innings will be described as one of his best, as he first arrived at the crease when his team was in crisis. Day two will be about batting India out of the Test, but also about reaching the milestone that has eluded him for far too long.
South Africa (1st innings) – 291-2
Jacques Kallis 159*, Hashim Amla 115*, Zaheer Khan 2-67.
For the full scorecard, click here.
31 Comments
6 Feb 2010, 07:26 am
choke the life out of the dragons…
6 Feb 2010, 07:37 am
Prince failed again. 0… ai yai yai
6 Feb 2010, 08:02 am
Kallis cutting loose yet again. he has been in fantastic form lately
6 Feb 2010, 08:21 am
AH FFS ….. PRINCE do the honourable thing … quit Int cricket you quota!!!!. KING KALLIS simply is the best batsmen in the world ATM! SHould easily have been the player of the century! (wickets & runs) . … Look at Kallis’ strike rate vs Amla .. (Amla is the new G Boycott)
Lets hope quota Duminy does something right for a change!
6 Feb 2010, 09:01 am
@Shaun_Langenh0ven: I’d rather Duminy quit and Prince got his old position back. Prince averaged 60 in that position. Gibbs could open with Smith……
6 Feb 2010, 09:03 am
bat…bat….bat!!!
Glad we won the toss….dont want to bat last here!
6 Feb 2010, 09:04 am
Cant understand why they persist with a middle order batsman as opener.
Prince is clearly not suited or happy there.
Like ruan Pienaar at 10….if your heart aint in it….always ends in tears.
6 Feb 2010, 10:18 am
how great is this Kallis!!
6 Feb 2010, 10:28 am
King kallis …
6 Feb 2010, 11:09 am
kallis….keep head down my man…..cmon…need that double …what a player…
6 Feb 2010, 11:15 am
go Amla…go you good thing…make them pay for dropped chance!
Love it
6 Feb 2010, 11:32 am
They should make Amla open the batting with Smith and send Prince back to the middle order. With the consistent failures of the opening partnership, Amla is usually in after a couple of overs anyway.
6 Feb 2010, 12:09 pm
I think one of the problems is Kallis desn’t want to bat 3. Given his form and importance to the team, you have to play him where he feels most comfortable, and that seems 4. Moving Amla to open leaves a gap at 3, and I don’t think Prince will be better off there than opening, also taking into account Amla is doing pretty well at 3. So means if Prince can’t open he either gets dropped or takes Duminys place.
Perhaps they could try opening with Duminy. Although don’t think he will handle the new ball too well to be honest. Or back to De Villiers opening, but that didn’t work either. Tough one really.
6 Feb 2010, 12:27 pm
Hashim tonks a ton. Lovely jubbly. 264/2
6 Feb 2010, 12:27 pm
Bloody happy for Amla. he deserves that ton, he has been close so many times recently only to miss out just when he looked certain for one
GO PROTEAS!!!
6 Feb 2010, 12:40 pm
Quality knock fron both Amla and the legend…
6 Feb 2010, 12:42 pm
Hate to jinx him… but could this be the elusive 200 and against the world number ones?
6 Feb 2010, 12:55 pm
@Rebels_Shark:
Jacques…155 not out…
Jinx won’t jinx him. Only he can jinx himself.
Buuuut, I think he’ll do it this time around. Double ton time is ripe. Flippin’ hope so.
6 Feb 2010, 13:01 pm
@Jinx:
Nerve racking this.
6 Feb 2010, 13:25 pm
@Rebels_Shark:
Show a little faith bru…he has to do it sometime.
6 Feb 2010, 13:29 pm
Only one of the top century makers without the double ton.
Let’s hope he finally gets it.
6 Feb 2010, 14:10 pm
Great, great innings by Kallis so far! Definately one of his best hundreds! Let’s not curse with this talk of getting a 200, but eish, I hope he gets it!
Amla’s role at number 3 must not be underrated. He has stabilised a previously hoodoo position for SA. I read SA Cricket’s story on him, and I think he may have too, because he read the situation on the field perfectly today. Was the anchor when Kallis was on the attack, and upped his tempo when Kallis was being more resolute!
I’m torn about Prince. He and Smith have similar weaknesses against the swinging ball, and facing Zaheer Khan with the new ball, both of them are vulnerable. I’d like to see Prince play a more attacking role when opening the batting, as that is how he gets his confidence up when batting up front (e.g. Newlands test vs Australia last year; MTN40 semis and final). We have Alviro Petersen in the team, whose opened the batting for the Lions a lot of times. Maybe he is next in line after Prince. But I’d like to see Andrew Puttick open the batting with Smith in the future. If JP Duminy performs well on this tour, it will be tough for Prince to move back to the middle order,
6 Feb 2010, 20:06 pm
Ashwell now averages a princely 12.12 over 5 test matches (8 innings) in the 09/10 season. Runs scored per last 8 innings:
45 duck 2 16 duck 15 19 duck
I can see a pattern here… and it is scary.
6 Feb 2010, 22:42 pm
Well, glad to see it’s going well for a change. Kallis has always been my great, and I really hope that double ton will come his way tomorrow. The Proteas should just keep their heads up high, and they’ll cruise this Test match and the series too hopefully. We need to regain the number one Test ranking!
7 Feb 2010, 00:04 am
I really think Prince should move back to where he batted before. Our top order needs stability and since Prince has moved up the middle order has also become shaky with Duminy having 2nd season syndrome and AB also struggling for runs.
7 Feb 2010, 02:42 am
@kwas: #23
As middle order batsman in 2008 Ashwell’s record was:
year 2008
Matches: 13
Innings: 20
Runs: 900
Ave: 64.28
It included 4 x 100′s and 2 x 50′s. In other words, he scored more than 50 runs about every third innings he batted. That is the kind of consistency you would expect from a middle order batsman.
As opening batsman in the 2009/10 season his record is:
season 2009/10
Matches: 5
Innings: 8
Runs: 97
Ave: 12.12
Do you see a pattern here?
Conclusion? Prince is not an opening batsman and should be moved back to the middle order where he belongs.
7 Feb 2010, 06:03 am
@nama1:
Not rocket science Nama, every man and his dog say the same, but at the expense of whom?
7 Feb 2010, 06:25 am
screw the 200…Kakkis go make the world record!!
7 Feb 2010, 09:34 am
@nama1: Not sure why repeated the exact same stats I already posted. Short term memory issues maybe?
Doesn’t matter how you spin it, Ashwell has been hopeless this season. Why not give Alviro a chance – can he play any worse?
7 Feb 2010, 10:27 am
@kwas: 29
Nothing wrong with my memory, ou gabba.
Agree re Alviro to open instead of Prince. Drop JP and move Pince back to no. 6.
8 Feb 2010, 01:10 am
@Ezee-23:
That’s twisting the statistics to suit your argument, Ezee.
Prince had an avergae of 60 in that position for ONE SEASON. His career average in that position (he has been afforded the luxury of batting in his preferred position for almost all of his career) is, i think, in the low 40s. That’s the truth.
Using your ****-eyed approach, it could easily be argued that Neil McKenzie, in the 2008 season when he was one of the top run scorers in international cricket, should never have been ditched so soon after a poor run.
Hell, in his five games against Australia last season, he scored 223 runs at an average of 24.8. That’s stellar stuff compared with Prince’s 97 runs in five Tests this summer – at the ‘princely’ average of just 12.1.
No, time to say cheers to Ash, as he’s the past, Duminy the future.
But someone needs to give Duminy a good kick up the rear, and fast. He’d do well to look closely at Hashim Amla if in search of the answer. Unassuming, humble, dedicated, hard-working. And the results are there to see.
Duminy, on the other hand, seems headed down Gibbs Boulevard. Acres of talent but with an insatiable thirst for fast cars, the good life and, he thinks, an untouchable position in the national side because of his hue.
@wpw:
AB’s hardly ‘struggling for runs’. His problem is he’s still too loskop. He makes 50s regularly (something Duminy would kill for right now!) but needs a stern talking to (over to you Kepler), needs to be told that flashy 50s don’t win Test matches; he needs to knuckle down and turn them into hundreds, preferably big ones. Otherwise, he runs the risk of becomeing just another one-day cricketer.
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