There are splendid sights in cricket and there are not so splendid sights. If you are a bowler, one of the worst is Jacques Kallis at the crease: square-jawed, rock-solid still, set as if in concrete and eyes fixed firmly on the prize. He went to the crease in that deliberate way of his at seven minutes past noon yesterday and he was still there at the close, his 32nd Test hundred tucked firmly under his belt.
If it was another day in Test cricket that Kallis will look back on with pride, it was one that Andrew Strauss will want to forget. England’s captain has wallowed in praise since the Ashes, but here he gambled twice at the start of the day, once with the team selection and once at the toss, and by the day’s end it was clear that both had backfired. The match is still in its infancy, but by selecting cautiously and offering South Africa first use of the pitch, he has gifted away the initiative.
The decision to bowl first could not be described as a howler, in the Nasser Hussain at Brisbane or Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston sense, as there was enough grass on the surface in the morning to sense that this was a tricky call. But the suspicion remains that the decision to bowl had been taken the day before, when the pitch had a greener, darker hue, and not enough notice was taken of the overhead conditions, which were balmy and blue.
Not that such doubts existed when Graeme Smith edged down the leg side to a spring-heeled Matt Prior in the second over of the day and there was enough movement off the pitch in the morning to keep England’s seam bowlers interested. But by the afternoon, the African sun had drawn whatever moisture there was out of the surface and Strauss, instead of attacking, was forced to play an attritional game. With Graeme Swann twirling through 24 overs and the occasional ball keeping low, it is a decision Strauss would no doubt like to revisit.
He, or England’s think-tank, were more culpable over the team selection. With doubts over the form and fitness of England’s frontline bowlers, it was reasonable to expect a five-man attack, especially given the luxury of Prior, who is a genuine all-rounder. Instead, England preferred Ian Bell at No 6, so Strauss was left praying on the fitness of his three main seamers.
Ironically, Graham Onions, preferred to Ryan Sidebottom probably because of his fitness record, felt stiffness in a calf during the afternoon and bowled only 14 overs in the day. With Onions sidelined, James Anderson wicketless and scowling throughout, Stuart Broad unable to add to his early dismissal of Smith and Paul Collingwood and Jonathan Trott called into action, a limited attack began to look threadbare as Kallis, first with A. B. de Villiers then J-P Duminy, became entrenched.
There was some doubt over Kallis’s participation before this match but such is his importance to South Africa that the notion put forward by Mike Procter, the convener of selectors, that Kallis would not play unless he could fulfil his role as a bowler was quickly squashed.
Not for the first time, as he stuck resolutely to the principles of Test batsmanship, he reminded his colleagues that this form of the game demands a higher price on your wicket.
To that end, Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla and De Villiers will be kicking themselves that they did not convert starts into something more meaningful. Amla drove loosely to slip to give Onions his only, but deserved, success of the day, while Prince and De Villiers fell to Swann, Prince edging to slip and De Villiers defending to short leg. Swann bowled tidily throughout, although Kallis and Duminy occasionally counter-attacked by launching him into the stands to keep him honest.
The wicket of De Villiers gave Swann particular delight, because only an over before, he was convinced that De Villiers had underedged an attempted sweep. So convinced, in fact, that he and Prior called for a review without Strauss’s consent, a decision entirely without merit since the faint edge, imagined or real, was never likely to be seen by the third umpire without the aid of Hotspot.
England, by this stage, had used both of their unsuccessful reviews, Anderson and Strauss having referred a leg-before appeal against Kallis, though the reason for this was not so much the conviction behind the appeal but simply that it was Kallis who was there for the taking. The newly tweaked review system is a vast improvement on what went before, the only drawback being that, as Anderson’s appeal with Kallis suggested, some wickets will become more valuable than others.
It was nearly the last time England sniffed Kallis’s wicket. Only momentarily, as he pulled a short ball airily off Broad in the direction of Onions at fine leg, did he look vulnerable again, but that fleeting moment of worry turned quickly to prolonged triumph because it was the stroke that brought up his hundred.
Producing the goods on the first day of a series is always especially pleasing, not that England’s bowlers shared that feeling last night. The morning session, before the moisture disappeared, was their chance to seize the initiative but with the exception of Onions, they bowled too short. Broad, in particular, looked out of sorts.
A day that began badly for South Africa with the injury to Dale Steyn, who had failed to recover from a hamstring injury in time, and the dismissal of Smith, finished brightly. Duminy suggested that his difficulties with the short ball in the one-day series are behind him — and, boy, did England give him opportunity to practise against the bouncer — and Kallis looked as greedy as ever. He has never scored a double hundred in Tests and is not a man who likes statistical anomalies.
South Africa: First Innings
*G C Smith c Prior b Broad 0
A G Prince c Collingwood b Swann 45
H M Amla c Collingwood b Onions 19
J H Kallis not out 112
A. B. de Villiers c Cook b Swann 32
J-P Duminy not out 38
Extras (b 1, lb 10, w 5) 16
Total (4 wkts, 90 overs) 262
†M V Boucher, M Morkel, P L Harris, F de Wet and M Ntini to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-51, 3-93, 4-159.
Bowling: Anderson 23-6-68-0; Broad 20-6-42-1; Onions 14-2-53-1; Swann 24-5-61-2; Collingwood 7-1-18-0; Trott 2-0-9-0.
England: *A J Strauss, A N Cook, I J L Trott, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, I R Bell, †M J Prior, S C J Broad, G P Swann, J M Anderson, G Onions.
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and S J Davis (Australia). TV umpire: A M Saheba (India).
Match referee: R S Mahanama (Sri Lanka).
Reserve umpire: B G Jerling.
Fixtures Dec 26: Second Test match (Durban).
Jan 3: Third Test (Cape Town).
Jan 14: Fourth Test (Port Elizabeth).
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