Jacques Kallis' Time to Shine

South Africa will go into the fifth day of the first test in Perth needing a further 187 runs to win against Australia after finishing day four on 227-3.

Captain Graeme Smith made 108 to help South Africa towards there mammoth total of 414 to win.

Earlier in the day Australia finished on 319 all out to set the tourists a massive forth innings total, and if surpassed would be the second highest achieved in test history.

After Smith was dismissed plenty of the pressure will be on all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who has come in for some recent criticism for not performing against the big nations.

Closing the day on 33 not out Kallis looked in fine touch and will be keen to end his year on a high.

In the history of Cricket Jacques Kallis will go down as one of the greatest all rounders there ever was.

His dominance in the all-rounder position has seen him consistently as one of the top 10 bowlers and batters in the world as well as in the top 10 all rounders where he currently stands as No. 1.

However that rating is certainly not down to the year that Kallis has endured, one of his worst to date.

He's made just one century, and will come away with an average of around 32.36, a full 23 runs off his career average.

Maybe to force it home even more in the series over Bangladesh his average from the series was just 25.75.

No disrespect to Bangladesh but with the quality of player that Kallis is, it should be at least double that.

It's detriment to the high standards that Kallis have hit that we are disappointed at his current season, but he knows that in Perth tomorrow all of that can be forgotten.

However there is also an argument that Kallis doesn't perform against the big countries when it matters.

Now I find it unlikely that Kallis can be seen as the best all-rounder in the world if he doesn't perform against the big teams.

Looking at the teams around South Africa in the test rankings his average's are littered to near his best to towards the form he's shown this year.

Against his current opponents Australia he averages 40.12. Not a bad figure considering the dominance Australia have shown in test Cricket over the last 10 years.

Against India however he averages 55.25, just below his personal career average so you can see it's a country he certainly likes playing against.

Against Sri lanka his average goes down to 33.63, and in fact Kallis has never made a century against the country in his test career.

And then we go onto England where his average lies in the middle of those at 40.97.

When you look at those stats against the top four test playing nations, excluding South Africa of course it doesn't really back up the claim that Kallis doesn't perform.

His conversion of hundreds is maybe the key to Kallis' form. Of the 50 centuries he's made in test matches just eight of those have come against those four countries.

So in there lies the answer, when it comes to scoring big runs against the big nations Kallis maybe doesn't step up as much as he would like.

Although he has certainly spread himself with the highest amount coming against the West Indies with seven three figure scores.

So is Kallis just more consistent against everyone, but doesn't particularly excel against the big nations in quiet the same way?

Well that for you to decide how you interpret the information, but let me leave you with this Kallis in the only player in test history to reach 9,000 runs and 200 wickets.

Due to his constant heavy work load is it not outstanding the effort he's already putting in.