Kallis working his way back to fitness

Jacques Kallis is slowly fighting off a mystery virus that forced him to miss the third one-day match against New Zealand and is looking forward to being fit for Friday's fourth game.

The virus also caused Kallis, recently voted ICC Player of the Year, to miss half of the second game at Newlands last week, a match where, clearly struggling, he crawled to a painstaking 51 off 94 balls.

Kallis told www.supercricket.co.za, he didn't know much about the illness. "It's a very strange virus that seems to kick in when I raise my heart rate. I was training and warming up before the Newlands match and as soon as my heart rate went up and I started sweating that was it - I was sick.

"I have no idea where I caught it or how long it might last, and I haven't experienced anything like it before," Kallis added.

"But I'm starting to feel a bit better and I'm definitely getting there. I feel as though I should be fit to play in Durban on Friday. If a couple of days rest doesn't get rid of it then I might just have to try 18 holes of golf followed by a couple of cold beers!"

The mood in the New Zealand camp, however, was understandably less jovial. Having already lost the five-match series, Stephen Fleming highlighted the failure of the top order as a key factor in the Kiwis' poor performances.

Fleming was quoted as saying on www.stuff.co.nz , "We are not good enough to take them out of the game earlier. The top order has been poor throughout the three games so far and at no stage have they allowed us to get away. The bottom line is they have been better than us at home."

Fleming was disappointed at the inability of the batting to add "another 20-30 runs" on their final score of 243 at St. George's Park, the scene for the third, series-clinching ODI. "What we set out to do was to take them out of the equation by batting a lot better. In the field I think we were pretty sharp but not accurate enough overall when it counted."

The New Zealand captain, among the most experienced and respected internationally, also lamented the ill-luck his side have suffered on the field. "The run-outs of Craig (McMillan) and I hurt us and did stunt any momentum. With mine, I was disappointed when you do the hard work and don't get a big score.

"But we have got to be better than that. We gave them another opportunity and they were able to take it." Fleming has stressed, however, that his side won't roll over now that the series is gone and will be keen to give the final scoreline some respectability.