Kallis retires from Tests

[Jono]

Didn't fancy facing Johnson clearly. Least Swann had the balls to get through 3 tests.

This current innings symptomatic of his whole career and why he isn't loved in the same way as other greats. A Ponting or Lara would have pushed on and try and put their country in a better position maybe to the detriment of their own performance. Kallis just plods along. Great player but rarely inspiring.

He definitely isn't as consistently inspiring and exciting with the bat as the trio of Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting.

But his awesome bowling compensates for that.

 

[kyear2]

Didn't fancy facing Johnson clearly. Least Swann had the balls to get through 3 tests.

This current innings symptomatic of his whole career and why he isn't loved in the same way as other greats. A Ponting or Lara would have pushed on and try and put their country in a better position maybe to the detriment of their own performance. Kallis just plods along. Great player but rarely inspiring.

Unfortunately sad but true. He just didn't push on to give his team the initiative, especially when A.B was dismissed. One just knows that Lara, Ponting and even Tendulkar would have been more assertive in that situation especially after the initial recovery.

 

[theegyptian]

He definitely isn't as consistently inspiring and exciting with the bat as the trio of Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting.

But his awesome bowling compensates for that.

Yes don't get me wrong. You'd love him in your team. Does everything so well. Gives the team so many options

Reminds me of Trott though with his batting. Will just bat in a bubble. It's great 95% of the time and he it does it better than anybody else but the other 5% of the time you just wish he'd push himself. Unlike Trott he does have the game to dominate an attack and that to me is the slightly disappointing thing about his career. He would probably sacrifice a few runs in average but would probably have pushed SA over the top as the best team in the world that bit earlier. But no one is perfect and everybody has flaws.

And that's me comparing his batting with other batting greats. As you say on top of that you have his bowling and slip catching. Incredible.

 

[akilana]

Should have played like KP and got out by now with a beautiful 51 or like his last innings where he scored an almost a run a ball 31.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yes don't get me wrong. You'd love him in your team. Does everything so well. Gives the team so many options

Reminds me of Trott though with his batting. Will just bat in a bubble. It's great 95% of the time and he it does it better than anybody else but the other 5% of the time you just wish he'd push himself. Unlike Trott he does have the game to dominate an attack and that to me is the slightly disappointing thing about his career. He would probably sacrifice a few runs in average but would probably have pushed SA over the top as the best team in the world that bit earlier. But no one is perfect and everybody has flaws.

And that's me comparing his batting with other batting greats. As you say on top of that you have his bowling and slip catching. Incredible.

Do agree with most of that. As you said, I do wish he'd push the initiative a bit more sometimes like Sachin, Lara, Ponting.

Overall though, arguably the greatest cricketer of the generation. If he'd played for India, he'd easily be in our top 3-4 all time batsmen, bowlers and slip fielders. Just astonishing.

 

[kyear2]

Yes don't get me wrong. You'd love him in your team. Does everything so well. Gives the team so many options

Reminds me of Trott though with his batting. Will just bat in a bubble. It's great 95% of the time and he it does it better than anybody else but the other 5% of the time you just wish he'd push himself. Unlike Trott he does have the game to dominate an attack and that to me is the slightly disappointing thing about his career. He would probably sacrifice a few runs in average but would probably have pushed SA over the top as the best team in the world that bit earlier. But no one is perfect and everybody has flaws.

And that's me comparing his batting with other batting greats. As you say on top of that you have his bowling and slip catching. Incredible.

Precisely.

Should have played like KP and got out by now with a beautiful 51 or like his last innings where he scored an almost a run a ball 31.

There is a middle ground.

 

[akilana]

Kallis played this slow in 90s but in 00s (in 100 tests) his srike rate is 50 which is the middle ground. His innings today is slower than his normal innings for few reasons but that's not how he has been playing for many years now. In the last 5 years when he had more support, it is 53. Sachin and Ponting's SR are 55 abd 58 respectively for a comparision but you would try to convince SR difference between Kallis and them is a lot bigger. Thers's a huge difference in SR between Kallis and Gilly/Sehwag but not so much between Kallis and Ponting/Sachin.

 

[benchmark00]

Lack of a rolling guard of honour from India very disrespectful IMO.

 

[harsh.ag]

Lack of a rolling guard of honour from India very disrespectful IMO.

Think SAF are going to give it a go once the match is over?

 

[ankitj]

I am just glad that the cameras captured Kallis' guard of honour. Tendulkar's was totally spoiled by cameras focusing on pretty faces and VIPs in crowd.

 

[social]

Didn't fancy facing Johnson clearly. Least Swann had the balls to get through 3 tests.

This current innings symptomatic of his whole career and why he isn't loved in the same way as other greats. A Ponting or Lara would have pushed on and try and put their country in a better position maybe to the detriment of their own performance. Kallis just plods along. Great player but rarely inspiring.

Kallis is 38

At that age, Ponting and Lara had retired whilst Tendy was nowhere near the player he was

To say that they would have smacked the Indian attack around yesterday in similar cicumstances is just nonsense

 

[Spikey]

Jarrod Kimber ‏@ajarrodkimber 16h
I do hope there will be a guard of honour for Kallis' last disgusted look when someone hits a boundary off him.

Rob Moody ‏@robelinda2 15h
@ajarrodkimber you know, I have a video half done of Kallis bemused looks when he gets hit for 4

Rob talking a big game

 

[Red]

did you read his article about kallis retiring because he was scared of the aus attack? might have been the worst article i've ever read on any topic.

Yeh, most disrespectful piece of **** journalism I've read.

 

[Jono]

I am just glad that the cameras captured Kallis' guard of honour. Tendulkar's was totally spoiled by cameras focusing on pretty faces and VIPs in crowd.

Rare moment too for the South African cameramen to not be focused on chicks in bikinis. Shows how much Kallis meant to South Africa for them to ignore the cans for a little while.

 

[social]

Rare moment too for the South African cameramen to not be focused on chicks in bikinis. Shows how much Kallis meant to South Africa for them to ignore the cans for a little while.

Much as I am a Kallis fan boy, bring on the cans

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Kallis. When the world needed a hero, up he steps to casually strike a ton against the fearsome BCCI. What a man, what a legend.

 

[rza]

Its wrong to retire at the top when you can play for two more years and get more records. The guy deserved 300 wickets, and he's close to 50 centuries and record catches. But at least he got out with a century.

 

[fredfertang]

After that ton I wouldn't bet against him taking 8 wickets in the Indian second dig - after all its not as if they travel well

 

[silentstriker]

Doesn't matter. That innings saved the match for both SA and India.

 

[theegyptian]

Kallis is 38

At that age, Ponting and Lara had retired whilst Tendy was nowhere near the player he was

To say that they would have smacked the Indian attack around yesterday in similar cicumstances is just nonsense

Kallis has played this same innings countless times over his career. That's why I said it was symptomatic of his career as a whole. I'm not saying he should have blasted from the start. He could have done more later in the day to try and push the game on against the part time spin and tiring seamers. The chances of SA losing were slim as it was from the position they were in after tea given India's conservative attitude and the light/rain situation in durban meaning plenty of time was still to be taken out of the game. He isn't match situation aware enough imo and just plays inside his bubble. You accept him for what he is. He is a great player to have in the team but not a great team player.