The awesome Kallis and Amla

by The Editor

FEATURE: If Graeme Smith’s and Hashim Amla’s 259 2nd wicket run-fest remorselessly eroded away England’s confidence, Kallis’s and Amla’s subsequent 377 unbeaten run partnership rendered them shattered, physically and mentally. But it’s not the first time these two have produced that kind of collaboration, on that kind of scale. In fact, when it comes to big partnerships, there is a case to be made no two batsmen in the history of test cricket boast a better record.

The awesome Kallis and Amla

By: Gareth van Onselen


24 July 2012

Since the beginning of test cricket only two batting pairs have produced 6 partnerships of 200 runs or more: Kallis and Amla for South Africa, and Hayden and Langer for Australia. 7 pairs have achieved the feat 4 times. When they do get to 200, though, Kallis and Amla carry on, and on, and on, and on. Thus, the average for any Kallis-Amla partnership greater than 200 runs is a staggering 435, the highest out of all those at the top of the pile. Likewise, with 1 739 runs, they have accumulated more than any other pair.

1. H Amla and J Kallis: 6 partnerships; 1 739 runs at an average of 435
2. M Hayden and J Langer: 6 partnerships; 1 365 runs at an average of 228
3. M Atherton and G Gooch: 4 partnerships; 895 runs at an average of 224
4. M Clarke and R Ponting: 4 partnerships; 1 236 runs at an average of 309
5. R Dravid and V Sehwag: 4 partnerships; 1 152 runs at an average of 288
6. R Dravid and S Tendulkar: 4 partnerships; 913 runs at an average of 304
7. S Ganguly and S Tendulkar: 4 partnerships; 1 041 runs at an average of 260
8. G Greenidge and D Haynes: 4 partnerships; 1 069 runs at an average of 356
9. M Yousuf and Y Khan: 4 partnerships; 1 135 runs at an average of 284

Here is the full list.

It makes sense. Both Kallis and Amla operate in the same way: an exquisite technique, a seemingly impenetrable defence, a will-breaking concentration span and the patience of Job. Together they not only reinforce but compliment each other. The combination is awesome. If you are an opposition team, you simply don’t want these two guys to bat together, least of all for any period of time.

Now, you might have noticed that Tendulkar and Dravid both appear twice on that list and your response might be: ‘Fine, Kallis and Amla bat well together but Dravid and Tendulkar have done it with numerous partners, and so surely that represents a bigger achievement?’ You would be wrong.

I cut the list off at 4 partnerships, because if you included all the pairs that had achieved the feat 3 times, the list becomes cumbersome. But Kallis has achieved it 3 times with 2 other partners: AB de Villiers and Gary Kirsten, and he has achieved it twice with 3 partners: Smith, Gibbs and Prince. Amla also 3 times, with Graeme Smith.

I cannot produce the definitive list on Cricinfo, but as far as I can tell, Jacques Kallis has been involved in more 200 partnerships than any other test player in the history of the game. Producing that stat requires going through each player individually, so I have only done it for the main contenders, but I think I have covered all the right bases. Here is that list:

• J Kallis: 20 (258 innings; an average of a 200 run partnership every 12.9 innings)
• S Tendulkar: 18 (311; 17.2)
• R Ponting: 17 (282; 16.6)
• R Dravid: 15 (286; 19.1)
• G Smith: 14 (175; 12.5)
• D Bradman: 14 (80; 5.7)
• J Miandad: 13 (189; 14.5)
• M Hayden: 13 (184; 14.1)
• V Sewag: 12 (167; 13.9)
• J Langer: 11 (182; 16.5)
• S Waugh: 11 (260; 23.6)
• H Amla: 10 (104; 10.4)

As I say, this list is not definitive. But I think I checked everyone that matters, if they not on here, they achieved the feat less than 10 times.

A few things to note. First, Kallis has been involved in more double century partnerships than anyone else in test history – 20. Obviously it takes two to make a partnership and so credit cannot go to one player alone, but it is fair to say it says something about them: that they are able to bring the best out of their partners and contribute to a long partnership.

Likewise, it says something about how good a batting a line up is. And so it is significant that in era that has seen two of the greatest batting line ups of all time (India: Dravid, Tendulkar, Sewag and Laxman and Australia: Hayden, Langer, Ponting and Waugh) Kallis still emerges top.

Second, of particular interest is how often he averages a 200 run or greater partnership. I divided the number of times they have achieved the feat by the number of innings played and Kallis’s average of a double century or greater partnership every 12.9 innings is remarkable. The greatest batsman ever – Bradman, who played just 80 innings – averaged a mere 5.7 but, outside of him, Kallis is bettered by only two players and, significantly, they are both South African: Graeme Smith (12.5) and Hashim Amla (10.4).

In fact, Amla’s average is remarkable. One of the greatest in the modern game. To put it in perspective, if he carries on at this rate, by the time he has played as many innings as Kallis, he will have some 25 double century partnerships.

Much is made of those other two great batting line ups but the fact that South Africa has Kallis, Smith and Amla in the top dozen or so of all time tells you something about how special our current batting line up is (de Villiers is not far off either, with 6 double century patnerships in 125 innings).

To follow Inside Cricket by e-mail simply go to the bottom of the page and fill in your address. When you confirm it, you will receive an e-mail the moment any new post is loaded to the site.