Kallis revives shaky South Africa: T3 D1

South Africa 6/279 (83.2 ov, J Kallis 108*, M Boucher 51) v England: T3 D1 at Cape Town

The day's play at first resembled that of the previous match. Then Jacques Kallis in a series of partnerships wrested, if not the initiative, at least some equilibrium back from England. England's decision to field after winning the toss (as they'd done in T1) was vindicated by the early success of their bowlers who exposed the fragility of the top order by taking 3/51. Thereafter Kallis demonstrated his class, first in a partnership of 76 with Graeme Smith, then after two wickets fell in successive balls at 127, batting through the rest of a day shortened by weather and poor light for 108*/188b (11x4), adding 89 with Mark Boucher and an unbroken 61 with Dale Steyn.

Kallis is an effective rather than a stylish player so it's easy to overlook his considerable achievements with bat and ball as his Test career stats show . He's had only one recent poor series with the bat, v England in 2008, but even here he partly compensated for this loss of form by taking 10 wickets at 29.5 apiece. Scorecard

A word about Makhaya Ntini who was omitted from the South African XI and who is likely to announce his retirement from international cricket. His stats are pretty good too.

Sunshine transforms Durban and England batting: T2 D3

England 5/386 (123 ov, A Cook 118, P Collingwood 91, M Bell 55*) lead South Africa 343 on first innings by 43 runs with 5 first innings in hand: T1 D3 at Durban.

The sun came out at Durban, helping to change the nature of the pitch and the match. Some doughty batting from Alistair Cook 118/263b (11x4) and Paul Collingwood 91/215b (7x4) put England well on the road to a first innings lead. In the last session Ian Bell overcame some initial discomfort against Morne Morkel to push the total along with a fluent 55*/84b (1x6, 5x4).

Good as the English batting was, the South African bowling contributed to this. Morkel excepted, it looked ordinary for most of the time. On the evidence of the series to date Makhaya Ntini is not worth his place. On D3 he was better than on D2 but rarely looked more than steady. He has an admirable record but there are other considerations which the selectors will bear in mind when the team for the next Test is chosen. Paul Harris also bowled (to continue in damn-with-faint-praise vein) steadily, yet his 1/92 from 23 ov didn't look as impressive as J P Duminy's 1/39 from 13. Most batters can survive against him by watchful waiting, waiting that is for the far from uncommon loose balls.

With three days gone and the England first innings still in progress a draw looks the likeliest result, and the one which South Africa is probably already resigned to. An England win isn't out of the question but its 4-specialist-bowler attack will need to lift against the solid and deep South African batting, not to mention the pitch.

Scorecard

Heading for draw after D2?

England 1/88 (23ov) trail South Africa 418 (153.2 ov, J Kallis 120, JP Duminy 56, G Swann 5/110) by 330 runs with 9 1st inns wickets in hand: T1 D2 at Centurion.

South Africa after losing Jacques Kallis for 120/225b (1x6, 16x4) early scratched away for 63.2 overs adding 7/156. England did a little better, though both sides seem to be comfortable with a draw. And this in a three Test series!

Not a great day's Test cricket: one for watching the highlights to fill the gaps in one's viewing of the live relay.

The lowlight of what I did see was the perfect script for Makhaya Ntini's 100th Test spoilt as he had Alistair Cook dropped at third slip off his first ball to him.


Scorecard

Kallis leads South Africa to safer ground in Ntini's 100th Test

Another Test starting on a Wednesday and overlapping a little with the Perth one. You can understand doubling up on Boxing Day but why can't the authorities (esp the Australian and West Indies ones schedule things better? South Africa deserve the first bite of he cherry: Wednesday there is a public holiday whereas in Perth it's a midweek working day.

Enough on that . I watched most of the middle session live and the whole day's highlights later. The Proteas recovered in the 35 over last session from 4/159 to 4/262 thanks chiefly to the seemingly ageless Jacques Kallis' 112*/203 (1x6, 14x4). Even at tea, when he was 51*, he looked in very good touch.

Scorecard


This is also Makhaya Ntini's 100th Test. South African cricket CEO Gerald Majola says "He has stridden the world cricket stage like a colossus since making his Test debut at the age of 20".

As a person with an interest in grammar (some might say I'm a pedant) I can't resist observing that "stridden" is a brave call for the past participle of "stride". I'd have said "strode" though Google search opinion seems to be divided : see this and this for examples.