Amla leads Proteas

Solid 106 not out, as SA end on 325/4

Hashim Amla provided further proof at St George’s Park yesterday that he will make a career out of going regularly where other players fail to tread.

On a day – the first of the second test between SA and New Zealand – that was strewn with the debris of big innings that might have been but weren’t, Amla mastered the conditions and the bowling.

His reward was a stoic 106 not out that he will surely build into something considerably more imposing today when SA resume on 325/4.

In the dressingroom, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers, who both reached half-centuries before throwing their wickets away, could only watch and admire.

The South Africans will struggle to admit that they did not expect the Black Caps to come back as strongly as they did from the hiding they took in the first test at Newlands.

And who could blame the home side? Teams that are shot out for 45 on their way to an innings defeat aren’t supposed to come back from the dead.

But that is what the Kiwis did yesterday, delivering a bowling performance that made good use of the surprisingly lively conditions and fielding with an intensity that was not seen in Cape Town – albeit that they made the crippling error of squandering a chance to remove Amla.

He was on 48 when he cut hard at Doug Bracewell. Kane Williamson, in the gully, dropped a catch he should have held.

Smith was not as lucky, brushing a leg-side delivery from Neil Wagner into BJ Watling’s gloves.

De Villiers tried to slap Jeetan Patel over midwicket, but failed to clear Williamson at midwicket.

They had scored 54 and 51 respectively, and their disappointment at getting themselves out was plain to see as they trouped off.

At least they forged further than Alviro Petersen, whose top-edged pull shot off Bracewell saw his innings snuffed out at 21.

Smith and Amla added 92 for the second wicket, and just five overs after Smith was dismissed, Jacques Kallis played an uncharacteristically loose drive to Bracewell and was caught behind for eight.

To see one of cricket’s most meticulous players removed from the equation in such an unusual way brought home just how flat the South Africans’ performance was at that point.

De Villiers’ dismal dismissal, despite the addition of 86 runs for the fourth wicket, only strengthened that theory. Amla wasn’t bothered by all that, neither before nor after he was joined by Faf du Plessis.

But Du Plessis was capable of looking after his own innings, even though he might have gloved a delivery from Trent Boult to the wicketkeeper when he was on 42.