Smith and Kallis star in easy win

South Africa continued their string of emphatic victories in the warm-up games ahead of the Champions Tophy with a 125-run win against MCA President's XI in Mumbai. Graeme Smith scored his third consecutive half-century since his return from injury and Jacques Kallis smashed 71 off 57 balls to take South Africa to 303 for 6, their third consecutive 300-plus score. They used as many as eight bowlers in their defence and restricted MCA to 178 for 8 with only Amol Muzumdar offering resistance during his 67.

Smith had scored 73 against a local side and 90 off 54 balls against Saurashtra and today he needed just 68 balls to score 76. He added 52 for the first wicket with Herschelle Gibbs and 86 for the second with Boeta Dippenaar. South Africa then lost four wickets for 22 runs and when Mark Boucher departed for 49, they were on an unconvincing 215 for 6.

However Kallis, who batted at No 7, launched a fierce counter attack with Andrew Hall during the slog overs. Kallis smashed five sixes in his innings and the 88-run partnership for the eighth wicket came off just 8.3 overs.

Charl Langeveldt led the bowling effort with an incisive opening spell that reaped two wickets. Ntini bowled a tight line and length but went wicketless during his eight-over spell that cost just 16 runs. Justin Kemp chipped in with two wickets although his continuing poor form with the bat will be a concern for the management. Andrew Hall and Andre Nel also bowled miserly spells as MCA were kept under wraps.