Defiant Kallis gives India near-impossible task

Kallis hits second century of match to put South Africa on top on fourth day of series-deciding third and final Test.

CAPE TOWN: Jacques Kallis hit his second century of the match to put South Africa on top on the fourth day of the series-deciding third and final Test against India at Newlands.

Kallis, in pain from a side injury which kept him from fielding, made 109 not out as South Africa recovered from a precarious 130 for six to be all out for 341 off the last ball of the day.

The right-hander’s effort left India with the near impossible task of scoring 340 to win on a wearing pitch on which uneven bounce could make batting difficult on the final day.

It was the second time Kallis, who made 161 in the first innings, had scored twin hundreds in a Test match, although it was the first on home soil. The innings took Kallis, who has 40 hundreds to his name, into second place on the all-time list of Test centurions behind India’s Sachin Tendulkar (51).

Kallis steers SA

Kallis and Mark Boucher (55) rescued the South African innings with a seventh wicket stand of 103. Dale Steyn then hit a breezy 32 as he and Kallis added 54 for the eighth wicket against a tiring Indian bowling attack.

India’s misery was compounded when Morne Morkel hit 28 in a ninth wicket stand of 46, with Kallis happy to let the tail-ender keep the strike, before last man Lonwabo Tsotsobe hit the first two balls he faced for fours and was caught on the boundary off the next delivery.

Harbhajan’s threat

Harbhajan Singh had threatened to run through the South African batsmen when he took two wickets in his first two overs of the day to add to the couple he took shortly before the close on the third day. At that stage he had taken four for ten in five overs but he had to wait another 28 overs to dismiss Steyn.

He took the last two wickets to finish with seven for 120.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.