Kallis enjoying T20 focus thanks to retirement

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Cricket365
October 3, 2014

Veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis says he is enjoying his T20 cricket, given it's the only format he plays these days, and has had fun playing for Kolkata since his retirement from the South Africa side.

Kallis retired from the Test side late last year, and has since retired from all international circlet. While he spends most of his time saving rhinos with Mark Boucher, and getting some golf in, he's enjoying his KKR efforts.

He didn't have the best time at the IPL as a batsman, but was credited as being the leader of the side by the team's owner, and in the Champions League T20 semi-final on Thursday, his halt ton saw this side into their first CLT20 final.

Kallis, often criticised for not being a natural T20 player, told <i>clt20.com</i>: "I am playing less cricket now. So I am more enthusiastic and more energised for the amount of cricket I do play now.

"The biggest thing is it has given me more opportunity to work on my T20 cricket. I have put a lot of time into it and it is nice to see the hard work paying off.

"I have worked on giving myself bigger scoring options and allowing myself to become a better T20 player."

Another veteran in the match, though not as advanced as Kallis in age, was Pakistan's Shoaib Malik, whose half century went in vain. Without his 66 off 46 balls, there would have been very little for the Hurricanes to defend.

He said of his rollercoaster knock: "I did not want to play the way I did in the first phase of my innings. Whenever I thought about accelerating we always had a wicket falling at the other end.

"When you are losing wickets your preference as a batsman is to bat the full 20 overs and that is what I did."