Royal Challengers may opt to give Kallis another mini break

Cape Town (South Africa), Apr. 30 (ANI): Bangalore Royal Challengers coach Ray Jennings may be thinking about giving Jacques Kallis another mini-break to freshen him up better for the business end of the Indian Premier League?

The Royal Challengers are seeking to end a four-match losing trot and the veteran all-rounder (Kallis) is pretty sure to have entered this year's IPL as one of the most exhausted international cricketers of all.

Kallis, 33, has defied the creep of age to almost unfailingly "deliver" in his often no-frills way with both bat and ball for his country during the lengthy campaign in which the Proteas earned overall superiority for 2008/09 over the old enemy.

Kallis sat out just the first Challengers' match - ironically the one in which they registered their solitary win thus far, against Rajasthan Royals - but has played each of the last four games.

He was going pretty well with the bat at No 3, knocking up 101 runs at a healthy enough strike rate, until he opened in the last match against Delhi Daredevils and fatally shouldered arms to the swift Dirk Nannes's peach of a first ball of the innings.

But it is in the bowling department that Kallis's woes have contributed to the nightmare trot by his franchise: he has taken an awful pasting as first-change seamer.

Things went pear-shaped quickly, as the Chennai Super Kings' in-form Matthew Hayden blitzed him around the park as he was limited to two overs at a cost of 28 runs.

Kallis's less than flattering overall effort thus far is 11-0-135-1 and a gruesome economy rate of 12.27.

Intelligence from the South African camp, after all, suggests that it is not a foregone conclusion that Kallis has been put out to pasture as an international T20 player -- it is thought his experience could yet bring "value" on English pitches in early summer there.

T20 has not been his happiest arena for his country: in 23 matches, he has scored 483 runs at 21.95 and taken just six wickets at 83.33. (ANI)