Amla seems to relish the return of his Test match rhythm
TRENT BRIDGE: Hashim Amla took great pleasure from blocking the ball and leaving the ball yesterday. His forward defence was impeccable, his backfoot defence wasn’t bad either. They’re not the kind of things that in the age of razzle and dazzle give cause for spectators to sit up, but Amla’s not played that way for a while.
It used to be his way. Against England he’s had five innings in which he’s spent over five hours at the crease, the most famous of which was his 13-hour SA Test record at The Oval five years ago.
In trying to explain why Amla has struggled in recent times – he was averaging under 35 in the last 12 months ahead of this series with England – many have pointed fingers at the amount of ‘white ball’ cricket he’s played recently. At international level he’s a fixture for the Proteas in the 50-over format and at the World T20 tournaments. He’s also spent the past two seasons playing in the IPL and of course the demands there are dismissive of patience and defence.
Amla’s a smart enough player that he wouldn’t allow the kind of flamboyance demanded in the shorter formats to impact on his Test game. But even the best of players can develop bad habits and the rhythm of Test match batting can be difficult to find when you’ve spent the best part of four months swinging your bat as hard as possible at the ball.
Amla certainly didn’t have that rhythm at Lord’s, misjudging Moeen Ali’s spin in the first innings and then being flummoxed by a beauty from Liam Dawson in the second.
In this Test though the rhythm has returned. He had to fight very hard on day one to make 78, although the manner of his dismissal – out hooking – did not please him
With South Africa wanting to bat all day, while the pitch was still playing well, Amla could regain the rhythm which has seemingly deserted him in the past year.
Yesterday that virtue was on full display. Amla just wanted to bat, runs were not a priority, time was, so was his defence and judgement and those were for large parts of yesterday in very good order.
Ben Stokes bowled a brutal spell in which he dismissed Dean Elgar, who got in an awful tangle against a short ball. Amla ducked and swayed and when Stokes drew him forward his front foot defence was immaculate.
The hook shot was mostly absent although there was one searing pull of Mark Wood which saw the ball rocket to the boundary. Otherwise Amla was becalmed his only sign of aggression coming against England’s spinners, with Dawson targeted before lunch when Amla launched him straight a couple of times, including hitting him for six, to register his second half century of the match.
It didn’t make for enthralling viewing, but it proved mighty effective although given all the hard work he’d put in, he’d have been miffed he was dismissed just 13 runs short of a century especially as that dismissal was to Dawson.
For South Africa perhaps the most significant ball of the day was the one that got skipper Faf du Plessis out. The new ball shot through low from Stokes, striking Du Plessis just above his ankle.
That the pitch should be acting that way after just three days probably influenced South Africa’s decision to declare late in the evening. It’s reasonable to assume it will only get worse.
See full scoreboard on page 21.