ON THIS DAY
Follow UsWhile there are great cricketers whose contributions can’t be justified by mere numbers, South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis isn’t one of them. He boasts of being the only player to retire with 20,000+ international runs, 500+ wickets and 300+ catches.
Like every great South African player, be it Jonty Rhodes, AB de Villiers, Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs and many others, the biggest regret has been not winning a World Cup. However, they could retire with some peace, having won the ICC Knockout Trophy in 1998, thanks to Kallis.
Playing Sri Lanka in the semi-final, South African batters were in all sorts of trouble, as has often been the case with them in ICC tournaments. They had lost Mike Rindel, Daryll Cullinan, Nicky Boje and Mark Boucher for just 87 runs within the 17th over. Had it not been for Kallis’ unbeaten 113 from thereon, the Proteas wouldn’t have reached the final. Rain intervened, and South Africa ended their innings with 240 runs before Sri Lanka were beaten owing to the D/L method.
South Africa had to face an in-form West Indies next, with the likes of Philo Wallace, Brian Lara, Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs all gunning for glory. Bowling first, Kallis would return with figures of 5 for 30 in 7.3 overs that limited the Men in Maroon to just 245. Later, Rindel and captain Cronje would take the team home to lift South Africa’s only ICC title.
However, his absolute dominance in both Tests and ODIs separated Kallis from most other all-rounders. He is the only player from his country to score 100 50+ scores in both Tests and ODIs, apart from being the only South African to have more than 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODIs.
Another underrated virtue in Kallis’ game was his ability to score runs away from home. The broad-shouldered South African has a mammoth tally of 5,919 runs in 74 Tests with an average of 53.80, which is extraordinary given the position he came to bat in. Kallis has also tallied 3,712 runs in 107 ODIs with an average of 40.79. He has scored 27 away centuries in Tests and ODIs.
The hints of greatness were there from the very beginning and came to the fore when a 20-year-old Kallis took on the attack of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne to score his maiden Test century on the 1997 Boxing Day Test at MCG. Kallis spent 357 minutes on the crease to draw the match as his compatriots fell to Australian dominance.
Kallis would truly come to his element in the 2003-04 season, where he went on to score an unbelievable five centuries in consecutive Tests. The first four came against West Indies on home turf, with Kallis tallying 158, 177 and two unbeaten knocks of 130 each. If that wasn’t enough, Kallis followed it up with a 150 against New Zealand in Hamilton.
It wasn’t only the familiar fast pitches that Kallis excelled in, as he was equally great in sub-continents. The best example of that would be during South Africa’s tour of Pakistan in 2007. Facing against the likes of Mohammed Asif and Umar Gul in their backyard, Kallis scored centuries in both the innings of the Karachi Test match as South Africa won the match by 160 runs.
Kallis ended his career with 292 Test wickets and 273 ODI scalps, which went a long way to keep South Africa a competitive side for two decades. His best opponents in Tests have been Australia, England and West Indies, against whom he took 51, 50 and 52 wickets, respectively. In ODIs, Kallis has taken the most of his wickets (42) against Pakistan.
After Kallis’ 69-run knock helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) win the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2012 final against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), his teammate Brett Lee named the South African the best player in the world. That season, Kallis had tallied 407 runs and taken 15 wickets in IPL in a season-defining performance.
Kallis still has the most Man-of-the-Match awards in Tests, with 23 awards to his name.
