HARARE (Reuters)
Gary Kirsten has joined Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh in an elite of three batsmen who have scored Test centuries against eight countries. He also became the first South African to pass 5000 Test runs, but Kirsten played down his achievements.

"It's nice to achieve milestones but we play the game first and foremost to win," Kirsten told reporters. "It's always good to pick up a few milestones along the way. If you play for a long time I suppose you are going to get to those marks.

"If you play eight years for your country, I think that's the honour more than anything. If along the way you can achieve things and score centuries in all parts of the world, that's just a bonus to me."

Tendulkar, Waugh and Kirsten are the only players to have scored centuries against eight countries. Test newcomers Bangladesh are their only remaining targets.

Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs, who scored 147 in an opening partnership of 256, were happy to profit from the sub-standard bowling of the Zimbabwe attack on a sound batting pitch and fast outfield.

"You take the good with the bad," Kirsten said. "You're going to play on bad wickets, you're going to face top bowlers. Batting up front against the new ball is always a battle and at the end of the day you've still got to stick it out and get the runs, no matter what you face."

South Africa scored at the brisk rate of 4.6 runs an over and at times the run-rate rose to more than a run a ball.

"We want to get 300 in a day, that's our goal. We were lucky today, we got more."

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd