da lvbet： An imposing century by Jacques Kallis gave South Africa the honours on the first day
The Bulletin by Faras Ghani in Karachi01-Oct-2007
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Jacques Kallis got to his hundred off 147 deliveries © AFP
An imposing century by Jacques Kallis gave South Africa the honours on the first day of the first Test after Graeme Smith had won the tossand elected to bat on a hot Karachi morning. They ended the day on 294 for 3, with Kallis unbeaten on 118.Starting cautiously and taking 14 deliveries to get off the mark, Kallis hit his stride soon with elegant drives square of the wicket.The slow pitch and hot weather made bowling difficult and anythingshort in length was ruthlessly cut and ended up penetrating a strongoff-side field. Dropped on 36 and 61, Kallis ensured an otherwise fluent innings playing majority of his strokes along the ground.He dominated the 170-run third wicket partnership with Hashim Amla,in terms of both strike and runs, and relieved the pressure when Amla got bogged down against the spinners. Kallis was not afraid to use his feet against the slower bowlers and scored at a quicker rate than normal, reaching 50 off91 balls and his hundred off 147 balls.The foundation for the innings, however, was laid by a confident opening stand of 87 between Smith and Herschelle Gibbs that punished some wayward bowling by Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. Not getting any early movement off the pitch or in the air, the bowlerserred in line and length and allowed South Africa reach50 in the 12th over. Striving for the yorkers he delivered so successfully during theWorld Twenty20, Gul was frequently driven through extra cover and wasduly replaced by Danish Kaneria in the tenth over.The slowness of the pitch was apparent as Asif, trying to bowl short,was pulled by Gibbs to square leg on several occasions. Pakistan lacked energy and creativity in the field and Shoaib Malik,the captain, tried six bowlers before lunch, including debutantAbdur Rehman. It was, however, Mohammad Hafeez who got the firstbreakthrough as Smith went back to a straight ball and got hit on theback leg in front of off stump.Gibbs slashed at a wide Gul delivery after lunch and was caught at gully byHafeez but it was all Kallis and Amla from then on. Though the bowlers were able to swing and spin the older ball, aplay-and-miss was the best they could achieve on a deteriorating pitch. It was the new ball, taken in the 82nd over, that brought the wicket of Amla, who fell for a sedate 71. Beingovershadowed, and perhaps awed, by Kallis’ performance, and finding it difficult to get the spinners away, Amla dealtmostly in singles but dispatched Rehman into the sighstcreen after hehad managed to dry up the scoring.With Kallis unbeaten on 118 overnight, and not having scored adouble-century yet in his 107-Test career, a long day in the field lookson the cards for the home team while they rue the dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.