In a bid to secure a draw for his side, South African skipper Hashim Amla, along with teammate AB de Villiers, put on a clinic of defensive batting on the fourth day of the fourth Test match against India in New Delhi on Sunday.
Faced with an unassailable victory target of 481 runs and his side’s dismissal for 121 in the first innings, the struggling Amla switched tactics and decided a “blockathon” was the best chance of survival.
On Monday, Amla continued to frustrate the hosts until Ravindra Jadeja came up with a beauty of a delivery to clean up his off stump. Amla ended with 25 off 244 deliveries, making it the slowest innings of 200 deliveries or more in the history of Test cricket, for matches where data is available.
The Proteas scored 72 runs off 72 overs on Sunday.
{{/usCountry}}The Proteas scored 72 runs off 72 overs on Sunday.
{{/usCountry}}So slow was the pace of scoring that Amla got his first run off the 46th ball he faced, and later his third-wicket partnership with the usually attack-minded AB de Villiers got going only after 63 deliveries. De Villiers, one of the most destructive batsmen in the world currently, was also committed to the defensive approach, scoring 11 off 91 by stumps on Sunday.
South Africa scored just 35 runs in 34 overs between lunch and tea and 32 runs from 33 overs in the final session. They made just 49 runs in the first 50 overs, the least runs scored in the first 50 overs of a Test innings since 2002.
Not surprisingly, Twitter users had a lot to say, especially about Amla’s innings.