Kallis shakes double century monkey

[Dogwatcher]

By ROB McLEAN

Cricket throws up many interesting statistics and glorious or infamous if you want to find it, someone's recorded it.
Shane Warne has the ignominy of having scored the most Test runs without converting an innings to triple figures, while with over 11,400 runs in the bank Jacques Kallis had the record for the most runs without a double century.
England's Alec Stewart now holds that record, just ahead of the regal and frivolous Australian Mark Waugh after Kallis at Centurion last night broke the double century duck in his 142nd test*.
As Kallis further outlined his class and shook a monkey off his back, South Africa slammed world number one India all over the park for a domineering 4/620 declared.
The big Afrikaner was not out on 201 when AB de Villiers, who had played a crusading innings (129 off 111 balls), finally gave away his wicket prompting the Proteas' declaration.
Kallis' durable career has somewhat been overshadowed by the fact it coincided with a domineering Australian outfit, along with legendary batting icons Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara.
But he is certainly a modern great of the game, have no doubt.
Kallis has now scored 38 Test centuries, his previous top score was 189* against Zimbabwe (2001).
Prior to this he had four scores over 170, the most recent being 173 against India at Nagpur earlier this year.
Interestingly only four of his 38 centuries have come against Australia, including his debut hundred in his seventh match in 1997.
Kallis' restrained nature, which is reflected by his dour batting, have seen him, possibly unfairly, labelled selfish by some observers.
However, the response from his team-mates and home crowd upon his milestone give the best indication of how they truly feel about him - he is a favourite.
In sporting circles those two factors often provide the truest indicators.
The crowd hailed Kallis' double century with a standing ovation that extended longer than usual for such a milestone, while his team-mates embraced him wholeheartedly upon his return to the shed minutes later.
Captain Graeme Smith was so quick to get his mate's helmet off it appeared he was going to kiss him, something that would have been one totally out of the box for both of the South African strongmen.
Smith made do with an exuberant head ruffle which clearly showed his affection for South Africa's highest Test runscorer.
Kallis' milestone, along with knocks from De Villiers and Hashim Amla, has put South Africa in the box seat to win this Test with India, having crumpled for 136 in the first innings, needing an unlikely marathon effort to save the match or make the home side bat again.

*For the record, Stewart recorded 8463 runs and Waugh 8029. Other players in the top 10 list of players who did not score double centuries are former world record runscorer Colin Cowdrey (7624), West Indian firebrand opener Richie Richardson and Indian skippers Mohammed Azharuddin (6215).

[spell_check]

It's funny though, I think he will be always underrated for his all-round efforts by anyone outside of South Africa. When talking about great players he usually gets noted as a sidelight, with a remark like "Oh yeah, there's a good player" and then the conversation moves onto the next player.

[mal]

PONTING
LARA
TENDULKAR
Often mentioned as the best 3 players this century

IF I was picking a best this century team, the first player I would pick would be KALLIS
He is a whisker behind the big 3 as a batsman
The bonus is his bowling
When I think of the great BATTING allrounders I think
1 SOBERS'
2 KALLIS
3 ...

[Gozu]

The only one of those three Mal I'd take over Kallis is Lara.

[Aerie]

His stats are impossible to ignore. Averaging 56 with the bat and 31 with the ball puts him high up in the all-time great category as an all-rounder and a batsman.

I still find it hard to put him up with Tendulkar/Lara/Ponting though, and I shouldn't find that hard because he is just as effective as these greats. Perhaps it's his "solid" style, similar to Dravid, as opposed to the stroke making of the three mentioned? Mind you, in recent years, without looking at the stats, I would imagine his strike rate has risen - his 201* last night was in just 260ish balls and last time in Australia he was far more aggressive.

He is an outstanding cricketer and has helped pull South Africa through from the Hansie Cronje saga to become probably the best Test Cricket team currently in the world - consistently scoring runs and taking wickets.