Jacques Kallis

Jacques Kallis fills the void

Shaun Pollock may have been dropped, but South Africa have got more than one crushingly dispiriting all-rounder at their disposal. In fact, South African cricket can boast a whole battalion of line-and-length-bowling competent-batting dullards.

Jacques Kallis is a little better than competent, of course, although he’s a dullard in more than one sense. Pakistan kindly supplied an ironed pancake pitch for the first Test and Kallis tucked in with gusto.

Kallis is currently 118 not out. It’s his 25th Test century. The man deserves our respect, if not our appreciation.