Related Link : NZ in South Africa
When the 1st Test Match between South Africa and New Zealand begins at the Centurion on Saturday, April 15th, three star players would be playing their 100th Test of their respective careers. New Zealand Skipper Stephen Fleming and South African all rounders Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock are the other two. The 33-year-old New Zealand Captain Stephen Fleming had made his Test Match Debut way back in 1994 at Hamilton against India. Fleming has scored over 6000 Test runs with 8 hundreds and 41 fifties. His average of just under 40.00 doesn’t truly reflect his real potential as he has on most occasions has thrown away his wicket after getting off to good starts. Nevertheless he has been a great player in his own rights and in particular a great leader he has been for the Black Caps having led them in 75 Test matches.
As far as the two South African all rounders are concerned, Jacques Kallis has been more of a batting all rounder and Shaun Pollock more of a bowling all rounder. Kallis has almost got to the magnificent mark of scoring 8000 runs and 200 wickets in his test career. Shaun Pollock who has batted mostly in the lower middle order has scored over 3000 runs and is approaching the 400-wickets mark. Both Kallis and Pollock made their Test Match Debut in the same season against the same opposition England in 1995 with both of them debuting in different matches of the series. For the record, Pollock was the first one to make debut playing in the 1st Test of that series and Kallis broke into the side in the 3rd Test.