Cricket: Kallis in prime touch as Tuffey suffers

By RICHARD BOOCK in South Africa

BLOEMFONTEIN - Jacques Kallis and Daryl Tuffey summed up the agony and ecstacy of test cricket at the weekend.

Kallis' imperious 160, his seventh test century, was one of the more elegant innings you could wish to see in the international arena, and might still be progressing had it not been for a dubious caught-behind decision awarded against him.

On the other hand, Tuffey is still searching for his first wicket in test cricket after making his debut against Australia last summer, and on the evidence of this match, may not have many more opportunities to turn his tour around.

The tall Northern Districts' paceman showed all the accuracy of a scatter-gun while opening the attack for New Zealand on Saturday, and while finding a shade more consistency on the second day, was still far too loose to trouble South Africa's batsmen.

The 22-year-old right-armer has now bowled 46 overs in test cricket for 223 runs, without being able to snare a wicket.

He came closest in the middle session yesterday when No 10 batsman Allan Donald skied a catch to Craig Spearman at deep extra-cover, only to find umpire Dave Orchard signalling a no ball.

Tuffey has at times shown good pace and encouraging bounce, with his "effort" ball proving difficult to defuse.

But too often he has strayed both sides of the wicket, making captain Stephen Fleming's task all the more difficult.

"We all would have liked to see him getting that wicket," New Zealand coach David Trist said afterwards.

"He's the one who is probably the most disappointed with how the day's gone.

"There are some anxieties there for him and, while he has bowled with a fair bit of pace at times, it's the consistency that's important, and the marks on the pitch after the first day showed there was very little consistency."

Kallis, who predicted South Africa would quickly get among New Zealand's top order and expose what his team believe is a long and vulnerable tail, said he had been working on trying to dominate opposition bowling attacks, rather than simply going with the flow.

The 25-year-old demonstrated precisely why he has a test average climbing above 41 in a 337-minute entertainment package.

He unveiled a full array of shots, the most impressive being his gorgeous cover-drives off both the front and back foot.

"New Zealand bowled too short on that pitch and I was able to play a few shots and get underway quite early," said Kallis.

He peppered the boundary hoardings with 26 direct hits.

"It was one of my better knocks, but I was given more loose balls than you would normally expect and in the end I was really able to enjoy my innings.

"Sometimes you have to work extra hard grinding out a big score, but I must say it was enjoyable to be able to play attacking cricket and put the bad balls away."

Of his dismissal - caught at the wicket off Shayne O'Connor - the only thing he would say was that the umpire Jayaprakash "obviously thought I had nicked it."

"There's nothing I could do," he laughed.

"He thought I was out - it was very frustrating."