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The veteran all-rounder recorded a career-best 224 in front of his home crowd in Cape Town on Wednesday as South Africa made a massive 580 for four declared on the second day of the third Sunfoil Test against Sri Lanka.
Kallis’ knock, which took 325 deliveries and included 31 fours as well as a six, was especially memorable because it came in his 150th test.
“Their both special, but the special part about this one is that I got it at Newlands,” the 36-year-old, who made 201 against India 13 months ago, said afterward. “It’s nice to get a big one here, especially with the series being at 1-1 and we needed some big performances from the guys.
“It was nice to be one of those guys that put in a big performance.”
His innings also followed a first career pair in the previous Test in
Durban where the Proteas suffered an embarrassing loss to the tourists
and even prompted some questions about Kallis’ ageing eyes.
“You don’t become a bad player overnight,” Kallis reacted. “One game doesn’t change a team or a player, so it was nice to get in and cash in on a good deck.
“We realise that we let ourselves down (in Durban). There’s no way that stuff like that should happen, but unfortunately it did.
“As long as you can learn from that and move forward. The guys looked like they’ve learnt and applied themselves well here.”
Kallis was also confident that South Africa were well placed to win the Test despite managing just two wickets in 39 overs as Sri Lanka reached the close on 149 for two.
“It is going to be tough, but there is going to be some uneven bounce and Imi’s (Imran Tahir) turn will be important.
“We’re fortunate because we batted at a good rate and have now given ourselves some extra time to try and bowl them out twice.
“It would have been nice if we picked up one more wicket today, but we’re very happy with the situation. Our guys believe that we can get 20 wickets on this track.”
Sri Lanka coach Geoff Marsh paid tribute to Kallis after his marathon knock saying: “He’s a fantastic cricketer and right up there as one of the greats.
“We didn’t want to watch him bat, but we had to. He was fantastic”
However, Marsh felt that his players could match South Africa with the bat of they played to their full ability.
“If we bat well, we’re capable of making big scores, so there’s three really tough days of Test cricket left if we play well.
“I think if we can get to the follow on then the game opens up a bit.”
