SA need Rolls-Royce to purr
Proteas’ Amla is still ‘one innings away’ from a series turnaround
WHEN Hashim Amla was asked what morsels he and his team may munch on from the scraps that Bangalore gave them, he was at his diplomatic best. “The thing that we’ll take the most out of this match is similar to what we took from Bangladesh,” the Proteas captain stated at the end of yesterday’s tame draw with India.
“In Bangladesh the match got rained out, but Dale (Steyn) took his 400th test wicket, so we held on to that. With AB (de Villiers) playing his 100th test and batting well, we are happy about that.”
It is small fry indeed because this was meant to be the match when South Africa got back into the series. There were plenty of motivating factors, but it has all ended in a rather damp squib for all parties concerned. Amla admitted that individual landmark aside, there wasn’t much for his team to be encouraged by.
“From a team point of view, I don’t see a lot of positives to take to be honest. But every time there is a disappointing session or a disappointing day of cricket, it is the reflection that happens afterwards that is more valuable than most things.”
The Proteas certainly have had a long time to reflect on a number of issues. Four days of sitting around, mostly in the team hotel, with nothing else to do but wait and think is plenty time to take stock of where they are.
“Test matches are not always won on the opening day, and there was a lot of time left for us to claw our way back into the game. You never know what could have happened, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be,” Amla lamented about the torrential weather.
So far, the world’s top-ranked test outfit hasn’t pitched up in this series. With the bat they have looked to be held back by doubt, content to try and keep out the Indians instead of fighting back and wrestling the initiative, which has been their hallmark for the last decade on the road.
At one down and with two matches to go, the tourists will have to shake off the shackles, be they mental or tactical. They will have to force the issue, to an extent, starting in Nagpur. Amla will have happy memories of Nagpur, the scene of an unbeaten 253 in an innings and six-run win back in 2010.
There, the South African test skipper was a revelation, foiling pace and spin in a display of batsmanship that was so clinical and familiar to locals that it reminded them of many of their greatest players. Certainly, next week would be a good time for Amla to revisit those giddy heights, for himself and certainly for his team.
India have identified him and the peerless De Villiers as the centrepiece of the Proteas batting arrangement, and have placed great emphasis on knocking one of them over early. So far, that has been Amla, who historically provides the Rolls-Royce to De Villiers’ Ferrari at the other end.
But India know that the latter can only get so far without the soothing touch of Amla digging in for the long haul. It also can’t be overstated how much runs from a captain on tour can mean for a team under strife.
Amla knows all this and he has kept with his “one innings away” mantra all tour. That one innings needs to be in Nagpur. Looking back on the barrenness of Bangalore, he said no one knows how the second Test could have ended. “It would have been great for us to get some confidence (in Bangalore) after the poor starts with the bat but Nagpur is a different test and hopefully that is when it starts,” he added.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19
2015