Amla’s century helps SA beat Zimbabwe

HASHIM Amla is the only right-hander in cricket who plays with a lefthander’s elegance, and even if he had batted from the sinister side of the crease in the first one-day international against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo yesterday, he would have made a difference for SA.

Amla’s undefeated 122, his 15th century in the format and his fourth in six one-day innings, was him at his peerless best. It was also the fulcrum around which SA’s total of 309/3 turned and the main reason the visitors won the first of the three games in the series by 93 runs.

Other factors in SA’s success were a Zimbabwe attack that brought a water pistol to a gunfight in the desert, and a Queens Sports Club pitch as lazy as a lizard in the sun.

But Amla’s runs did not score themselves. He took them with grace and even better skill and stroke selection, not least when he came down the pitch to Prosper Utseya and put the ball over extra cover for six. However, even he needed a couple of nuggets of luck: Shingi Masakadza dropped him twice in the space of three balls, on 62 and 63, off his own bowling.

As long as Amla was there, SA were on top. And, of course, he was always there. He shared 109 with Quinton de Kock for the first wicket and 123 with Faf du Plessis for the second. De Kock’s 63 was spiked with eight fours and a six. Du Plessis whittled his 59 off 77 balls.

“Hashim was amazing, and Quinton and Faf played very well around him to set up a nice total for the bowlers,” AB de Villiers said.

“Our target during the middle of the innings had been around 250. But this shows that we are very dangerous in the last 10 overs when we have wickets in hand.”

For all that, SA disappeared down a rabbit hole after De Kock was dismissed in the 21st over, only 58 runs were scored in the 14 overs that followed. They came back to reality when Du Plessis drilled Luke Jongwe for 19 — 16 in boundaries — in the 40th over. That sparked a deluge of 101 runs in the last 10 overs.

Zimbabwe might have been in the game in the 41st over of their reply, when they needed 125 runs to win. However, by then they had lost six wickets and had neither the players nor the inclination to meet the challenge.

Both sides knew the match had been won and lost by the bats of Amla and company long before Zimbabwe were dismissed for 216 in 49.5 overs.

The second match will be played at the same venue tomorrow.