Pollock counts positives from Kanpur

Shaun Pollock, a South African cap perched on his cropped red hair, smiled and gave off that look of confidence 8212; as did all-rounder Ja...

Shaun Pollock, a South African cap perched on his cropped red hair, smiled and gave off that look of confidence 8212; as did all-rounder Jacques Kallis, seated next to him. More relaxed than when he was leader of the South African pack, Pollock is 24 runs short of joining another elite band of players with 350 wickets and 3000 Test runs.

Now he is hoping that Eden Gardens, the venue that displays the most passion if not noise levels for the game in the world, will be the stage to provide him with that singular honour. He admitted, with that cheeky grin he sometimes offers, eyes as bright as polished brass, that it would the right theatre, too. Having said that, he also suggested that it wasn8217;t going to be the only record he would set in his career. The way he looked at the assembled media, when asked about his future in the game, it was as if he had just smartly clipped a boundary backward of point and was expecting rousing applause.

8216;8216;I8217;m not one for thinking about records, though it is nice to know there are such features in the game8217;8217;, he said. 8216;8216;But it won8217;t be on my mind when I go out to bat and, as I8217;m going to be around for a few more years, well8230; who knows what might happen.8217;8217;

The response quickly squashed suggestions emerging from South Africa that Pollock8217;s Test career would be wrapped up within the next year. Asked about the pitch, he played the question with a straight bat; more defensive this time. 8216;8216;What we had expected8217;8217;, similar to Green Park with the same crazy-paving mosaic mix and some grass that was likely to disappear before the game on Sunday.

Throughout the half-hour session, the two senior South African players came across in a distinctively buoyant mood, unlike the drawn features and scowls in Sri Lanka before the second Test, where the series was lost 1-0 after the draw in Galle. There is the feeling that the tourists have done their homework this time and have a plan on how to bowl to Virender Sehwag, the human bazooka.

So how do the South Africans feel about bowling to someone like Sehwag when he8217;s in such a belligerent mood? It was his punishing strokeplay in the 2002 Champion Trophy semi-final, at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, that suddenly awoke the Safs to his confrontational approach.

8216;8216;Well, we have our ideas on how to approach out bowling strategy8217;8217;, Pollock said. 8216;8216;We will be looking to put these in place; maybe they will work. We8217;ll have to wait and see. But we did learn a lot from Kanpur and have come out of that game with a far better idea of what we need to do in terms of a gameplan.8217;8217; Pollock felt the South African attack that had taken six Indian wickets on the final day to give them a lead had been a plus for the tourists, but he was not too bothered by Sehwag8217;s claim that the Safs had bowled negatively to the Indian batsmen.

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8216;8216;You will have to ask him to clarify what he means by negative8217;8217;, said the former captain. 8216;8216;We have a different view about this type of thinking. We don8217;t think we were negative, so you explain it; or maybe he can explain it for you.8217;8217;

Kallis felt the consolidation of the team8217;s last-day performance in Kanpur had given them a lot more confidence. They knew that as tourists it would be a tough tour, especially with the players inexperienced as they are.

As a parting shot, Pollock felt that the tourists were not at a disadvantage having not played here in 2000 while Australia played a year later and lost that remarkable second Test. Similarities are odious and, in this sense, they wanted to come out of this tour with a better record than they brought into it.