During the 2003 England tour he received a late call-up to the South African squad and impressed with 16 wickets in the Test series. He scored a match-winning 99 not out at Headingley and became the 5th batsman in Test cricket to have been stranded one short of a hundred.

In 2004, due to the absence of the recently retired Gary Kirsten and non-touring Herschelle Gibbs, he was promoted to open the batting in the Test series against India. He reacted to the added responsibility by scoring 163 at Kanpur - his maiden Test century. The century was made against the likes of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, batting for almost ten hours.

He holds the World Record 8th wicket stand in ODI cricket of 138 with Justin Kemp, made against India in November 2006. His contribution was an unbeaten 56 from 47 balls and he went on to take 3 wickets in the second innings.^[12]

During the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies he took his maiden 5 wicket haul (5/18) against England on 17 April at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.^[13][14]

International retirement

Hall retired from international cricket in September 2007. Whilst not giving a reason for his decision, Graham Ford - Hall's coach at Kent - speculated it was due to his omission from the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship squad, saying:^[15]<