Amla world best helps steer Proteas home
future and things went well for us, so now eve r yo n e says we have to win the Afcon.
“But I don’t want people to doubt us – we stand a good chance of competing and going to the final.”
Algerian jour nalists, who were later asked by Ghanaian officials to leave the Hotel Mongomo where Bafana and Ghana had booked to stay, were trying to find out how much Mashaba knew about their national side.
But the veteran coach was playing his cards close to his chest, and chose to talk about his young side, who had surprised everybody with an unbeaten run in their last 10 matches.
“It is dangerous knowing another team’s strong points – it might lead to paralysis,” Mashaba joked when asked about Algeria’s strengths. “We know what Algeria can do and which players they rely on, but yesterday, today and tomorrow – well, it’s never the same.
“Things change, so we are expecting everything, and that is why I am saying the preparation helped us going into this tournament.” INTENSE heat, a violent storm, a Hashim Amla world record and some feverish hitting from Chris Gayle illuminated an otherwise undistinguished first one-day international between South Africa and the West Indies here last night.
In the end, the crowd who braved the storm, the clean-up, a howling gale and some frustrating Duckworth-Lewis manoeuvring had the satisfaction of celebrating a comfortable Proteas win, with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir grabbing three wickets apiece as the West Indies were dismissed for 164 – 61 runs short of their second revised target.
Earlier, the Proteas, helped by half-centuries from Amla, AB de Villiers and David Miller, had compiled 279/6 in 48.2 overs before a storm appeared to have sunk the match as the ground was lashed by heavy rain.
But heroic work by the groundstaff enabled the action to eventually continue with the visitors needing a revised target of 225 to win off 32 overs.
The chase was given a wild start by Gayle, who flung his bat at almost every delivery, smashing five fours and two sixes as he struck 41 in an opening stand of 51 in 5.4 overs.
It was breathless stuff and too good to last, and after Gayle departed, edging a slash to wicketkeeper De Villiers in Steyn’s first over, the dominoes began to fall.
The South African innings began and ended with a whimper. At the top end, opener Rilee Rossouw and Faf du Plessis registered a pair of ducks, falling to a couple of full swinging deliver- ies from Jerome Taylor.
At the bottom end, South Africa, well placed to go past 300 with 10 overs to go, were only able to add a further 37 for the loss of four wickets before the storm hit.
In between, however, they flourished, with Amla at his fluent best as he struck 10 fours in a superb 66. He and De Villiers put on 99 in 89 balls with Amla the main aggressor with some typically wristy strokes.
When Amla reached 54 in the 17th over, he achieved the remarkable feat of reaching 5 000 runs in ODIs in fewer innings than any other player.
And it wasn’t even a close-run thing, with Amla playing his 101st innings, comfortably beating Virat Kohli and Viv Richards, who achieved the feat in 114 innings.
A century looked his for the taking when he cut Darren Sammy to the right of Andre Russell on the third man boundary. It looked a sure two, but Russell released a perfect throw on the run to leave Amla just short of his ground.
Meanwhile, De Villiers, mindful of his responsibilities as captain, was playing one of his more conservative innings, being comfortably outscored by Amla and Miller in the two major partnerships that defined the innings.
Miller looked in fine fettle after pulling out of the final T20I on Wednesday with a sore back. There was no sign of that yesterday as he drove his first ball by Taylor for four and quickly took command, hooking, cutting and driving with aplomb.
This being a Miller innings, there were also two driven sixes off spinner Suleiman Benn, the second of which was little more than a punch that landed with a crash on the roof of the North Stand.
At this stage, the two men were effortlessly in control and a total well beyond 300 looked likely.
But when Miller was on 70, and the partnership with De Villiers had reached 123 in 122 balls, the left-hander was undone by a slower ball from West Indies captain Jason Holder which he ballooned to Dwayne Smith on the point boundary.
Miller’s demise still left the Proteas in a powerful position, but after De Villiers, who was suffering from cramp, holed out to long-on for a valuable 81 in 94 balls, the home team lost momentum in the home straight.