The Hindu : Kallis in ominous form

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Kallis in ominous form

By Ted Corbett

MANCHESTER July 4. As Jacques Kallis headed rapidly towards 7,000 one-day international runs only a week after reaching 6,000, he demonstrated not only what it requires to be a great batsman, but also why England may struggle to reach the final of its own tri-series.

His undefeated 82 in the fifth match of the NatWest tournament at Old Trafford on Thursday night sealed his side's seven-wicket victory, put it at the top of the table and mocked England, as its finest batsman Michael Vaughan cannot find a run and highest run-scorer Marcus Trescothick is dealing in just half centuries rather than accumulating 314 runs and being out only once like Kallis.

Of course, Kallis is a driven man. He is dedicating each carefully played shot, each precisely placed single, each crashing four and every hit into the crowd to his dying father.

Heaven forbid that either Vaughan or Trescothick should find such a reason to put together bigger scores; but unless they find inspiration somewhere, England's team of young stars may spend time next Saturday digging the garden or looking after their children instead of listening to the cheers of a sell-out crowd at Lord's.

A South Africa-Zimbabwe final is the last combination that the England and Wales Cricket Board had in mind when it invited them to play in its competition; indeed it will be another distressing moment it if it has to stare out of its corporate box at Heath Streak bowling to the two Jacques — Kallis and Rudolph — whose unbroken stand of 145 settled the match on Thursday night.

To avoid that possibility it needs to either swallow its pride and send for Graham Thorpe, who has already announced that he wants no more of one-day cricket but his innings for Surrey this summer has demonstrated his supreme skills at this modern art, or find more runs from its two top guns.

The first option the Board would call unthinkable, not least because Thorpe has let them down repeatedly while he deals with family problems. The second ought to be within the scope of its coach Duncan Fletcher.

After all, he has been advising Kallis since he was a promising schoolboy of 11 in his capacity as coach of Western Province. If anyone can get better out of a batsman it must be Fletcher. Trescothick is already a close-run second behind Kallis but the real problem lies with Vaughan.

Eagle-eyed former players claim to have noticed changes in his technique as soon as he returned to England after his magnificent displays against Australia.

Those who claimed he was back to his best after his, admittedly striking, 35 at Headingley in the rain-hit match earlier this week, saw their forecast shrivel last night when he again found it hard to move his feet convincingly.

Vaughan is in a difficult position. Until this moment he has not been considered one of England's automatic choices in the one-day side; now he is captain, ahead of his elevation to the Test leadership in the not too distant future.

Under him he has a bunch of kids who are struggling to survive, let alone score runs. Their target is proficiency in the next World Cup four years hence and it is too much to expect they will all find England form and runs immediately.

Only Vikram Solanki, brilliant fielder and dashing bat, and the wicketkeeper Chris Read have laid a substantial claim to a place in the 2007 team so far. The result is defeat three times in seven matches on top of

Vaughan's run famine. If he were to spring back into form all these problems might disappear but a day match at Bristol and a floodlit game at Edgbaston are all he has left to drive his side into the final. He recognised as much last night.

"It is important we reach the final although we are an inexperienced side that is rebuilding. We have had some great days and some disappointments,'' he said.

Meanwhile, I suspect, Kallis will have scored yet more glorious runs in his last tribute to his father, his bid to prove that he can make the move from good to great and, in the short term, placed South Africa in the final that would be the most fitting showcase for another century.

The standings: (read as country, played, won, lost, tied, no result, bonus points, points and net run-rate): South Africa 3, 2, 1, 0, 0, 1, 11, 0.28; England 4, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 10, -0.06; Zimbabwe 3, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 9, -0.33.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND

M. Trescothick c Boje
b van Jaasveld
60

V. Solanki c Boucher b Ntini 4

M. Vaughan c Boucher
b Pollock
3

A. McGrath st Boucher b Boje 52

A. Flintoff c Smith b Kallis 12

J. Troughton c Gibbs b Ntini 5

C. Read (not out) 30

R. Johnson b Ntini 10

A. Giles (not out) 20

Extras (b-4, lb-10, w-10, nb-3) 27

— —

Total (for seven wkts. in 50 overs) 223

— —

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-7, 3-121, 4-140, 5-162, 6-162, 7-176.

SOUTH AFRICA BOWLING

O M R W

Pollock 10 4 21 1

Ntini 8 0 38 3

Hall 7 0 43 0

Langeveldt 6 0 25 0

Boje 10 0 46 1

Jaasveld 5 1 18 1

Kallis 4 1 18 1

SOUTH AFRICA

G. Smith b Anderson 22

H. Gibbs (run out) 1

A. Hall b Flintoff 29

J. Kallis (not out) 82

J. Rudolph (not out) 71

Extras (lb-11, w-9, nb-2) 22

— —

Total (for three wkts.
in 47.3 overs)
227

— —