/ 29 December 2013

Kallis scores 45th test century

Jacques Kallis will end his career during the Test series at Durban's Kingsmead stadium.
Jacques Kallis will end his career during the Test series at Durban's Kingsmead stadium.

Jacques Kallis became the third all-time leading run-scorer in Test cricket with his innings of 115 in his final Test at Kingsmead, in Durban, on Sunday.

Kallis has amassed 13289 runs, playing in 166 Tests, to move above India's Rahul Dravid on 13288. Sachin Tendulkar held the record for the most Test runs with 15921 and second on the all-time list was Australia's former captain Ricky Ponting on 13378.

Scoring his 45th Test hundred earlier in the session, Kallis was second on the all-time list of century-makers in Test cricket, behind India's Tendulkar on 51.

The Boxing Day Test in Durban would be the last for Kallis who announced his retirement from the longest format of the game on Wednesday.

He will end his career at the ground where he made his Test debut for South Africa in 1995 against England.

The all-rounder averaged 55.37 cricket with the bat, scoring 45 centuries and 58 half-centuries. His highest score was 224 against Sri Lanka, at his home ground Newlands, in Cape Town, in January 2012.

His other double-century, the first of his career, came against India in December 2010, in Centurion, where he remained unbeaten on 201.

Kallis, a right-arm seamer, has taken 292 Test wickets at an average of 32.65, with best bowling figures of 6/54 which he achieved against England, in Leeds, in August 2003.

Kallis also became only the second fielder to take 200 Test catches on the second day of the Durban Test earlier this week. Dravid holds the record with 210 catches in 164 matches. –Sapa