Jacques Kallis delighted to score a double-century at his home ground – Cricket News Update
South African cricketer, Jacques Kallis, was over the moon after scoring a double-century in a Test match against Sri Lanka. Even more enthralling for Kallis was the fact that he achieved this feat while playing at his home ground,
Newlands, Cape Town.
This was Kallis' second double-century at Newlands. The first time the South African crossed 200-run mark in a Test innings was in December 2010 against the Indians at Centurion.
The 36-year-old holds dear both his double-hundreds, saying, “They are both special. But the special part is probably getting it at Newlands, especially with the series being 1-1. It's nice to be one of those guys who puts in a big
performance.”
Kallis hasn’t been up to his game lately. In the past twelve months or so, the all-rounder’s performance with the bat dipped to a great extent. Prior to the match at Newlands, the defensive middle-order batsman had played 4 Test
matches and merely 89 runs came from his blade.
Local press and media started scrutinizing Kallis, claiming that the cricketer is now old and is a pale image of his former self. However, Kallis remained sturdy despite all the criticism, and with this double-century he has proved
his knacks.
Kallis asserts that he doesn’t let newspapers astray him from his objectives. He said, "Doesn’t really read newspapers. You don't become a bad player overnight. It's crazy to see stuff like that getting written, that you're old and
you can't do this or that, come on, seriously.”
The South African run machine played an innings of 224 runs from 325 deliveries. The strike rate, 68.92, maintained by Kallis in this game was higher compared to his career strike rate of 45.32.
When asked what led him to change his approach, the masterly batsman said, “I’ve scored a lot quicker in Test cricket and I've worked on a lot of things to make that happen. I've been a little bit more positive over the last four
years.”
The 36-year-old also lavished praise on AB de Villiers, who shared a stand of 192 runs with Kallis. The fourth wicket partnership powered South Africa to a gigantic first innings total of 580 runs against the Lankans in the third
and final match and may very well win them the series.
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