'Boring' tag fine by me: Kallis

South Africa [Images] batsman Jacques Kallis [Images] said he did not mind being called 'boring' after his side thrashed England [Images] by 196 runs in the third Test on Thursday.

The win squared the five-match series at 1-1 with Kallis providing the backbone of South Africa's batting since the first Test in Port Elizabeth.

England's travelling fans, dubbed the Barmy Army, chanted 'boring, boring Kallis' as he worked his way to a patient 66 in the second innings as South Africa accumulated a huge lead.

"As long as I keep boring them I'll be happy," Kallis said. "It's just a matter of summing up the match situation and playing according to that.

"Sometimes there is a time when you can try and take the game away from the opposition and times when you have to grind it out."

In the three Tests so far Kallis has scored 448 runs in a little under 22 hours, including 215 runs at Newlands which took him 12 and a half hours.

"I am playing well at the moment and to continue that would be nice," Kallis said. "I've worked hard on my game, technically and off the field."

Captain Graeme Smith [Images] was full of praise for the right-hander. "Jacques has been superb, I'm running out of things to say about him," Smith said.

"As far as I'm concerned he is the best player in the world at the moment. The rest of us just need to start helping him score big runs."

Smith's claim was backed up by statistics when the latest PWC world rankings, released soon after the match, placed Kallis as the number one batsman in the world.

"I don't go out and aim to be the number one in the world," Kallis said. "I play the situation.

"But certainly being the world's number one is a great honour. It's something every player thinks of at some stage in their life."

Smith was confident that South Africa could now win the series after hanging on for a draw in the second Test in Durban where bad light stopped play with England needing just two wickets for victory.

"If I wasn't confident that we could win the series I wouldn't be arriving in Johannesburg (venue for the fourth Test)," Smith said.

"We don't believe that one win makes us world beaters, but it gives us confidence and belief in our abilities to win."

© Copyright 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.