South Africa

Jacques Kallis’s odd days

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Jacques looking 'comfortable'

Every now and again, Jacques Kallis has an odd day where he suddenly starts thrashing the ball around like he’s been possessed by one of Shahid Afrid’s many personalities.

He holds the record for the fastest Test fifty off 24 balls. Yes, it was against Zimbabwe, but plenty of other people have played against Zimbabwe as well and they didn’t do that.

We’ve written before that Kallis’s reputation is somewhat unfairly etched in stone by this point in his career, but we’re a great fan of these odd days of his. We like them specifically because he has invested so much of his life into doing the exact opposite. It feels like a treat.

Today, he hit 54 off 41 balls after Australia had reduced South Africa to 43-2 on the first morning of the second (and final) Test. This included a six and a four off Nathan Lyon’s first over, which brought to mind the treatment he meted out to Bryce McGain a couple of years ago. His batting then had been calculated and vicious and we were secretly hoping for something similar today.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Jacques will have to spend the rest of the innings in the pavilion, munching cakes and smoothing his fair locks in the mirror.

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11 comments

    1. Well done, although he’s actually equal second on that list, so you’ve done him a disservice.

    2. “You’ve done him a disservice” is so much kinder than “you’re clearly a fuckwit”, which would have been more apt. Sorry about that

  3. 266 all out.

    Every fibre of my being wants to say at this point that this is 5 times more than they need, and that Smith really ought to have declared when Kallis was out. However, it is actually a rubbish score on a flat pitch against bowling that is best described as mediocre.

    On the plus side Mitchell Johnson got a wicket. Nice ball too. Hopefully that will keep him in the team for the next few years.

  5. He really is ludicrously underrated. Which talks volumes about how good he is, as he is rated reasonably highly.

    He’s not exactly Mr Personality though, which perhaps explains the matter of underrating.

  7. This is why Kallis is so infuriating. He could have been another Klusener – Less of a legend, but much more entertaining for the rest of us. Would have added to his personality too, which bizarrely may have made him less underrated.

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