Kallis Double Gives Proteas Control
Once again, only three wickets fell today at Newlands on a road of a pitch that could not have played more differently than the one that staged the Proteas demolition of Australia in under three days, six weeks ago.
Greame Smith surprised most buffs with an early declaration that came forty minutes before tea when the scoreboard read 580/4. In reply Sri Lanka are making quick headway at 149/2 (39 ov.) but they are still 431 runs in the red.
Jacques Kallis (224 runs, 325b, 31×4, 1×6)) stole the morning show as he skilfully constructed his second Test double-century in front of a packed house full of the adoring Newlands faithful. The masterful batsman cut drove, pulled and drove away all memories of his pair of ducks at Kingsmead in the recent Boxing Day Test. AB de Villiers (160*, 205 b, 19×4, 2×6) kept Kallis superb company as the pair put on 192 runs for the fourth wicket. That after Alviro Petersen (109, 188b, 13×4, 1×6) and Kallis smashed 205 runs for the previous wicket did not help the Sri Lankan team’s morale.
The Proteas’ scored at an incredible 4.3 runs per over, a rate that was augmented nicely by de Villiers’ strokeplay after he reached his century. The batsman’s last 60 runs came off only 29 deliveries as he and Jacques Rudolph (51, 71b, 6×4, 0×6) scored put on 87 runs in the final 10 overs of the innings.
It is understandable that Graeme Smith declared early in order to maximise his chances of getting the opposition out twice. But his best chance of doing so was to bat only once and I feel strongly that he declared a little light. At that scoring rate, batting till tea might have added another 100 runs and demoralised the visitors to the brink of evening collapse. Time will reveal more.
South Africa did not bowl badly in reply. Morkel smashed the stumps of the new opener HDRL Thirimanne (23, 52b, 4×4, 0×6) and Imran Tahir was gifted the valuable scalp of Tillakaratne Dilshan (78, 79b, 12×4) who holed out to a diving Graeme Smith at mid-on. Tahir bowled with accuracy and determination and achieved some purchase from a surface that has looked very flat so far.
Newlands was sold out on both Day 1 and Day 2 is remarkable, especially against a nation that has only ever won a single Test in the country. Once again the sun shone, the crowd drank beer and cheered enthusiastically as they forgot the fact that it is the 4th of January and they should be returning to work by now. At this rate Day 4 and Day 5 promise to be every bit as exciting as the last 9-wickets-down draws that happened at the previous two New Years Tests.
Day 4 and 5 are a Friday and a Saturday so this crowd could break records. With the series in the balance and South Africa’s choking reputation in the back of our minds, it is all very exciting indeed.
