Batting at No. 4 for South Africa is no picnic; Darryl Cullinan could tell you as much. While Cullinan was still in his teens, he was hyped to the skies by the then-isolated South African cricket community. "The next Graeme Pollock", they called him. These were lofty expectations and he could never quite live up to them. Next to a sequoia, even a sturdy oak can look like a brittle twig. Neil McKenzie is the current occupant of that No. 4 slot in the one-day side. Luckily for him, the expectations are much more in tune with reality. With maturity, his countrymen have realised that the Pollock show was a one-time screening that will never be repeated.

Following in Cullinan's footsteps was hard enough though. For all his frailty against Shane Warne, Cullinan was one of the classiest batsmen that the cricket world has seen in the past decade. And along with Gary Kirsten, he played an enormous part in shoring up a batting order that had begun to look quite vulnerable in the mid-1990s.

McKenzie is fortunate because he plays in a side that has become accustomed to winning. The fear of failure is much easier to deal with when you have Messrs Gibbs, Kirsten and Kallis going in to bat before you, though rumour has it that Mr McKenzie has his own superstitious ways of beating stress and nervous tension.

After his superb innings today, the Kenyans must be wishing that he had kept his bat glued to the ceiling. Against an enfeebled attack missing Joseph Angara -- the hero against India -- McKenzie paced his innings beautifully. The quick bowlers never troubled him while the spinners didn't have the quality to induce doubt as the Indians had done.

For the moment, spin is his achilles heel. Anil Kumble embarrassed him at Centurion two weeks ago and until he overcomes the traditional South African reluctance to play slow bowling with a straight bat, he will struggle against bowlers of that class. Most of the South African batsmen seem to view the sweep shot as the panacea to all spin-induced evils. Against someone who turns the ball as much as Shane Warne -- and they'll be up against him soon enough -- that's as safe an option as Russian roulette.

Two strokes stood out from the platter that he served up at Newlands today. One was nothing more than an accelerated defensive push but the timing was so sweet that the ball cleared the rope. The second was a masterpiece in improvisation. A delivery from Thomas Odoyo pitched on off stump and looked perfectly respectable. McKenzie moved a fraction outside his stumps and flicked the ball over the short-fine-leg fielder with an angled bat, a bit like a master chef flipping an omelette. Again, the timing and placement were quite magnificent.

Chances are he won't make an easier century than this but the progress he has made in the last 12 months augurs well for the future. Let's just hope that some of the old-timers resist the urge to air those Pollock comparisons.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden Online India.

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