Boucher owed teammates his century
Trevor Chesterfield
15 January 1999
CENTURION (South Africa) - He is young, with a dash of adventure mixed
with talent and spiced with the sort of temperament which says much
for his future. Yet even Mark Boucher, at 22, was not shy to admit he
owed his maiden test century to his teammates.
That it came yesterday against the West Indies at the venue where he
scored his maiden first-class century against Northerns earlier in the
season, was more than just another milestone. It now means that
SuperSport Centurion is overtaking Newlands as his favourite ground.
But then he admitted with a shy grin that ``I owed the boys (his South
African teammates) big''.
Boucher had felt confident and all the exuberance of a batsman in nick
looking for a big one and when he got past 20 and into the 30s he told
himself ``not to give it away'' this time.
The sixth South African batsman to score a century at eight in the
order, Boucher agreed that his partnership of 92 with Jacques Kallis
has some similarities to the world record partnership with Pat Symcox
last season at the Wanderers, although being involved in that
partnership ``will always be special''. Yet there were other factors in
this innings which are worth remembering.
Scoring a century in a match where the side is 4-0 ahead in the series
was perhaps much easier than had the sides been 2-2 the pressure would
have been far greater.
``But being four-nil up you want to get as many runs as you can and
batting out there was nice. There was nice bounce (in the pitch) and
it allows to play your shots,'' he said.
Then he revealed that instead of talking tactics and strategy with
Kallis they talked ``a lot of junk'' which made him more relaxed. It may
surprise many that Kallis talks at all when he is out in the middle,
but he is not the top South African batsman, and only 23, for nothing.
Boucher said it had been the second time this series they had batted
together and had developed a good understanding.
Boucher found from his experience when playing for Border against the
West Indies and in the tests that they are positive and are always
inclined to bowl short.
``They are always going to back themselves against you but I felt
positive about what I was doing,'' he added.
Allan Donald got it all wrong when the scoreboard credited him with a
four instead of giving it four byes. But Boucher knew what his score
was despite Donald's premature ``congratulations''.
Until yesterday he had battled to put a decent innings together with a
top-score of 22 and only 68 runs to his credit in the series. So it
was nice to get a big one.
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