Kallis: Proteas very positive

2006-03-26 19:23

Durban - Australia ended the third day of the second Test at Kingsmead on Sunday very much in control of the situation, after a Brett Lee blitz saw South Africa slump to 267 all out. At close of play, Australia had 125 for one, for an overall lead of 227 runs.

South Africa resumed their first innings on the overnight score of 140 for two - still trailing Australia by 229 runs.

AB de Villiers, who had played very circumspectly on Saturday, reached his seventh Test half century off 134 balls, but three balls later, he was caught in the gully by Matthew Hayden off Stuart Clark for 50. He and Jacques Kallis had done much to strengthen South Africa's position with a third wicket partnership of 134.

Ashwell Prince and Kallis put on 56 runs together, with Prince playing the dominant role. Their 50 partnership came off 104 balls, but ended when Prince drove a Shane Warne delivery into the safe hands of Andrew Symonds at square midwicket about half an hour before lunch.

Prince had looked good, and he and Kallis appeared to be heading for a significant partnership until he misjudged the Warne delivery.

South Africa suffered a dramatic collapse after lunch. Jacques Rudolph was first to go, when he got a bat/pad to Shane Warne, and was caught at square leg by Michael Hussey for 13.

However, it was the new ball that saw the South Africans go down like ninepins. Stuart Clark succeeded with his first delivery with the new ball, when he caught Kallis off his own bowling for 114. It was Kallis's 24th Test century, and also the fourth time in four Tests that he had scored a hundred at Kingsmead.

Best team in the world

Kallis said afterwards that it was very gratifying to get a century against the best team in the world, but he was disappointed that South Africa had not got closer to Australia's first innings total.

"It was probably one of my quicker hundreds, so I'm really happy with that," he said. "We didn't bat as well as we could, and it's put us under a lot of pressure."

Kallis's departure precipitated South Africa's collapse, with Brett Lee taking four wickets in 14 balls for his seventh five wicket haul.

"Jacques Kallis is brilliant - he's also very patient, and has the ability to turn a match around," said Lee. "When Stuart Clark got his wicket, it set the whole snowball effect going. We were really lifted again - we'd been a bit down for a while because we weren't really playing to our normal standard. But as soon as we got that wicket, we picked up a cog, and that was great."

Shaun Pollock was brilliantly caught by Adam Gilchrist for one, Mark Boucher was bowled for 19, and Lee polished off the South African innings by taking the wickets of Andre Nel (5) and Makhaya Ntini (0) off successive deliveries. He ended with figures of five for 69 off 19.4 overs, and when he dismissed Boucher, he took his 200th Test wicket.

Very special moment

"I was bowling pretty well. I felt the whole morning that if I kept putting the ball in the right areas, the wickets would come," said Lee. "It means a lot to have got that 200th wicket. To take 200 Test wickets for Australia was a very special moment - and to cap it off with a 'five-for' meant it was a pretty emotional day."

Lee said that one of his idols growing up was South African great, Allan Donald. "He's a class act - a bloke that I thought had the perfect action. Just the way he went about his business - he had aggression when he needed it and then he could go back and bowl his line and length. He's a fantastic role model for the kids."

Australia batted more positively at the start of their second innings than they had in the first, when they seldom scored at more than two and a half runs an over. Matthew Hayden, who went out for a duck in the second over of the match, and Justin Langer put on 48 runs before Langer was caught by Pollock off Boje for 37.

Ricky Ponting joined Hayden, and despite some close calls, they were still there at close of play - Ponting on 48 and Hayden on 35.

Kallis said the South African team was still feeling very positive, despite the disappointment of their collapse. "We've been in situations like this before, and we've got out of them," he said.

"We truly believe we can get ourselves out of trouble and that we have a chance. Anything over 300 is going to be tough to chase, so we've obviously got to knock these guys over as soon as possible tomorrow and stop them scoring quickly -- that would be ideal."

- SAPA