Hashim Amla’s fifty goes in vain as India deny South Africa clean sweep

Hashim Amla’s fighting 52 went in vain as India salvaged lost pride by pulling off a dramatic 63-run win against South Africa in the third Test at Johannesburg.

Hashim Amla repeated his first-innings bravado by scoring his 38th Test fifty on the fourth day of third Test here on Saturday. Amla started his innings on an aggressive fashion but then settled down to labour through 134 deliveries with the help of only five boundaries. (SOUTH AFRICA vs INDIA 3rd TEST DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS)

Hashim Amla in action during the fourth day of the third Test match between South Africa and India at Johannesburg. (AFP)

Two short and wide deliveries from Mohammed Shami allowed Shami to get two easy boundaries in the first over. It sparked a phase of rebuilding as Amla got down to milking the gaps for singles and slowly rotate the strike. It however came after Amla couldn’t score off 11 consecutive deliveries. (SOUTH AFRICA vs INDIA 3rd TEST DAY 4 SCORES)

Amla however is one of those batsmen who have the ability to consolidate dry spells like this. It wasn’t easy though. Ishant Sharma beat his edge twice before Amla’s pull almost fell in Murali Vijay’s hand at backward square leg. Shuffling across the stumps though continued to help him as Amla glanced Jasprit Bumrah towards fine-leg for a boundary.

Bumrah almost got Amla when he nearly dragged him on to his stumps but this was Amla’s day perhaps. He continued to beat Amla’s bat but he bounced back by flicking him through mid-wicket for a boundary. But Amla’s strength was his ability to weather long periods of good bowling.

Once he reached the 40s, Amla flicked Kumar for three runs before he ran a couple of twos off Bumrah to reach his fifty. But Amla couldn’t carry on the good work as Pandya caught him at short mid-wicket off Ishant.