NAGPUR: Jacques Kallis posted his 34th test century and shared in an unbroken 187-run stand to guide South Africa to a powerful 193-2 at tea on the first day of the opening test against India.
Kallis struck 11 fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 120, sharing a dominant third-wicket stand with Hashim Amla, who was batting on 60 at the tea break.
The Kallis-Amla partnership revived South Africa after openers Ashwell Prince (0) and Smith (6) fell cheaply with just six runs on the board.
Kallis’ hundred brought him at par with former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar and West Indian Brian Lara in the third spot among test cricket’s top century-makers. Topping the list is Sachin Tendulkar of India with 45 centuries and Australian captain Ricky Ponting is in No. 2 spot with 39 hundreds.
Amla’s 60 came off 147 balls and included five boundaries.
Batting first after skipper Graeme Smith won the toss, South Africa conceded the initial advantage to the hosts as paceman Khan struck early to snare Ashwell Prince and Smith.
Prince was the first to go, trying to evade a bouncer from Khan that lobbed off his gloves to Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the fifth over.
Khan claimed the prize wicket of Smith two overs later with a fine delivery that swung in sharply and dislodged the stumps.
Amla and Kallis then turned the course of the match around in a series that will decide the No. 1 spot in the International Cricket Council’s test rankings.
An injury-stricken India picked rookie middle-order batsman Subramaniam Badrinath and wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha.
They got the chance to make test debuts as V.V.S. Laxman was ruled out by a finger injury while Rohit Sharma twisted an ankle in the morning warmup. India was already without Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and S.Sreesanth through injury.
was first posted on February 6, 2010 at 3:30 pm.
