TheSportsCampus

< Prev		Next >

Hashim Amla batted like a rock to register a career-best 253 not out even as veteran Jacques Kallis missed out on a maiden double for the umpteenth time in his long career on a day that saw South Africa declare in a commanding position at 558/6 in the first cricket test against India at Nagpur.

Mentor and protégé started a fresh day with renewed caution, and took their time settling in. In fact Kallis looked nowhere near as brilliant as he was the previous day. This was a fantastic opportunity to notch up a maiden double hundred for one of the greats of the modern game, but Kallis managed to add only 14 to his overnight total of 159, after consuming as many as 61 balls. He fell for 173, inside-edging a quicker one from Harbhajan onto pad and into the hands of Murali Vijay at short leg. Meanwhile, Amla continued to try and force the pace as the Proteas chugged along at a less-than-impressive runrate of 3 per over or thereabouts.

Amla was offered a couple more chances to survive to add to his two lives yesterday, that too off consecutive deliveries off Harbhajan. Murali Vijay was responsible for the first, an absolute sitter at forward short leg, while Dhoni was the culprit in the second, an edged glance down the leg side. Interestingly, Dhoni had stated before the tour started the India are a safe catching side, if not as good as the Saffers in the ground fielding department. They have already grassed 4 chances in two days, which suggests that there might be some fundamental problems that need attention. While the younger generation of fielders might be more athletic in the outfield in throwing themselves around to save boundaries, and might possibly have stronger throwing arms thanks to modern training techniques, the older generation was certainly a far safer catching unit, it must be said.

After Kallis' departure, Amla was joined by AB de Villiers and the duo ensured no further wickets fell in a century partnership that took the visitors past 450. De Villiers was particularly successful in putting the spinners off their rhythm by prancing out of his crease frequently. Dhoni's persistence with part-timer Virender Sehwag paid off in the form of De Villiers' wicket as an outside edge ballooned to gully. Next man in JP Duminy never looked in any sort of comfort at the crease and his sojourn ended when he missed a sweep and was struck on the pads by Harbhajan, just before tea. Mark Boucher was next in and he provided some dogged support to Amla until he tried to slog a slower one over midwicket and edged to cover to give Zaheer Khan a hard-earned third wicket.

The real story of the day was the class of Hashim Amla. Getting his maiden double hundred, he had the opportunity to go past the highest score by a South African, 277 made by his skipper Graeme Smith, and even past the magical triple hundred mark. But his low scoring rate combined with Smith's urgency to have a crack at the Indian openers before the close of play denied him that chance. Admittedly, he was the benefactor of the Indian fielders' generosity on as many as four occasions, but nothing can be taken away from this effort that showed that the absence of Kallis might not be felt once the veteran decides to hang up his well-worn boots.

Amla himself paid tribute to the grand master of South African modern batsmanship. "There is no better place to learn from a batting master class than to have the box office seat at the other end of the pitch," he said of Kallis' innings.

Of his own innings he commented: "I enjoyed reaching an important milestone but it is more important to put the side in a strong position. I will be even happier if we can pick up some quick wickets in the morning. It was a challenge to bat through a whole day's play and there were some testing moments against the spinners and again when the seamers got the ball to reverse."

There was a case for South Africa to be pressing the scoring rate, especially as it would be difficult to bundle out the Indians, albeit depleted, twice in three days. However, they preferred slow accumulation to aggressive strokeplay, and took their time in ensuring they had the cushion of runs needed to make a safe declaration.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel did get a couple of overs each to try and dislodge the Indian openers, but were unsuccessful. They will be looking forward to the tussle tomorrow morning, and considering the quality of both duos, so are we.

Mini Scorecard:

South Africa 1st innings: 558/6 decl.
Hashim Amla 253*             Zaheer Khan 31-7-96-3
Jacques Kallis 173             Harbhajan Singh 46-1-166-2

India 1st innings: 25/0
Gautam Gambhir 12*        Dale Steyn 2-0-8-0
Virender Sehwag 9*           Morne Morkel 2-0-13-0

File Photograph Copyright: Privatemusings