‘No-frills’ Hashim played by the book |
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Friday March 28, 01:15 AM
Chennai, March 27: No one would have blamed him had he thrown it away because he felt sated after spending over 400 minutes on Chepauk turf that was as lifeless as a mannequin in a high street store display window. Hashim Amla was finally dismissed on the second day of the first Test because he was involved in a mix-up with Mark Boucher over a single through which both may have ended up at the same crease. That seemed the only way the Indians could have shifted Amla from the batting crease.
Every time he makes big runs in a Test match, Amla must feel vindicated. For few experts gave him a chance to succeed at Test match level. The most vocal critic of his technique — of bat hanging in the air as a trigger movement in preparation to play the ball — was Barry Richards, who in technical matters is considered quite a pundit in the Republic.
Amla went to the same school, Durban High, as Richards and Lee Irvine, another accomplished Test match batsman.
There was always a suggestion that a batting tradition had been set up in Natal by such highly regarded batsmen as his predecessors at his alma mater. Amla seemed to defy them by adopting his own methods like the bat raised in his stance and his preponderant front-footed play, as opposed to orthodox textbook techniques.
Not being a player who came through to the rainbow nation’s team on the quota system, Amla has always had to stave off criticism of a different kind that had to do not with race but with the prejudices of cricket orthodoxy. Out here in India, he batted quite like the quintessential Asian batsman, occupying the crease with the patience of Job, playing in the strictly safe route straight down the field, in effect making stately progress much like the suburban trains that run adjacent to the Chidambaram Stadium with an ordained regularity.
Having learnt his cricket on the sporting wickets of Natal, Amla is a good puller and cutter. He was astute enough to realise that on this dreadfully slow pitch there were not going to be too many opportunities to play square of the wicket. The percentage lay in getting the front foot out and playing as straight as possible until bowlers strayed in line when his oriental wrists would come into play to deflect to leg.
Amla’s highest score against India was the adhesive that kept the innings together to make the South African total their biggest against India here. It was a no-frills innings in which the drive through cover and mid wicket were the strokes that could easily be recommended to youngsters willing to learn the game.
While Kallis and Prince may have been kicking themselves in the dressing room for having given it away in such good batting conditions, Amla brought out the full value of latching on to a good thing when you sighted an opportunity. His previous three Test hundreds came against New Zealand, which means he left himself open to criticism of gathering them against what may be considered a relatively weak Test attack.
Answering critics has been Amla’s way of life. He is the only player in his team who does not wear the Castle logo because the brewers make an alcoholic concoction that goes against his religious beliefs. But that is one area in which he brooked no opposition because anyone can see the logic behind his refusal.
With his steadfast ways at the crease here, Amla has given the visitors a chance to test Indian batting that has built up an even bigger reputation this season after reasonably consistent success against Pakistan and Australia. His score, just a boundary hit away from Andrew Hall’s 163, which is the highest by a South African batsman in India, was the cornerstone of the major effort needed if Smith’s luck with the toss had to be capitalised upon. The onus was soon on India to prove that they can make runs too in such one-sided conditions in which the bat has ruled over the ball.
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