Dale Steyn, who pegged back India with a six-wicket haul on Friday, said South Africa would do everything in their capacity to win the Test match for Jacques Kallis, who has announced his retirement the traditional format.
“He always lies to me, so I knew a week ago and I thought he was talking nonsense. But when he mentioned it straightaway, I had tears in my eyes, and I was like ‘Are you serious?’. He told me a week ago. We have been sitting down, and we are quite close. So, he always jokes around with things like that,” said Steyn in his post-day press conference.
“So, I knew in my head, watching him in change room he’s more talkative, enjoying his last moments in whites in the dressing room, this format has made him a hero for South Africa... actually all formats. Hope he enjoys his last days as a Test cricketer and like I said we will do everything to win it for him,” added Steyn.
M Vijay, who made a solid 97 for India as opener, said he was quite happy about the way he batted in this innings. “Scoring runs gives me happiness. So, I really feel happy the way I played the whole day yesterday, of course couldn’t make a hundred and it was disappointing. It was not a flat deck. It is a two-paced slow wicket, so it’s difficult to score runs here. But I thought I batted well,” said Vijay.
The Tamil Nadu right-hander said he wanted to play as straight as possible during the innings.
“As I said earlier, I have been watching the videos (of his earlier tour to SA) before I came to this tour, and one thing that got me out was playing away from the body, especially on this part of the world the shot is not on, the cover drive. You may be 100% sure, but it is still not an on shot for you. I just wanted to cut down on that and play as straight as possible. That was my game plan,” he added.