'It definitely got more difficult to bat -- I think from day one to day three, it got progressively worse. That’s just what it was'
Having seen his team capitulate in all the five innings of the ongoing Test series against India, South Africa captain Hashim Amla on Friday claimed that the pitches had a major role to play in their disastrous showing with the bat.
In the 3rd Test in Nagpur, South Africa folded for 185 in their second innings after posting a paltry 79 in their first innings and were thrashed by 124 runs by India, who sealed the four-match series 2-0 courtesy of the victory.
- Images from the third Test, Day 3
Amla made a veiled reference to the spin-friendly wickets saying facing someone like former India spin great Anil Kumble on these kinds of pitches would have been a ‘nightmare’.
“I put it down more to, I think, the wickets were a lot more challenging. I know the first time I came to India in 2008 and even in 2010, facing Anil Kumble, Harbhajan [Singh]. I think if I had to face them on these kinds of wickets I wouldn’t have got any runs either. So I put it down more to the wickets.
“Yeah, certainly, I remember facing Anil in Chennai and even in, I can’t remember the other venue, and certainly facing him here would have been a nightmare. So I think the wickets have played their part in making it difficult for all the batters,” he said after the third Test ended within three days in Nagpur.
“It definitely got more difficult to bat -- I think from day one to day three, it got progressively worse. That’s just what it was,” he further added.
He picked out the batting records in the series, stating not a single batsman has come close to hitting a century in the three matches played so far.
Amla also pointed out that even though India have won the two Test matches, their top batsmen have struggled to come to grips with the conditions.
“There hasn’t been a hundred in the series yet, handful of fifties at least, in both teams, so it would be harsh to say that this South African team has struggled to score runs.
“I think if you look at the Indian team, although they are on the winning side, it’s been tough for their batters as well, and given the quality of spinners the Indians do have, obviously it’s going to be a lot more tough for us in these conditions,” he stated.
He took the example of someone like Virat Kohli, who is yet to score a half-century in this series while scoring just 68 runs in the five innings.
“As I said, if you look at both teams, would the same criticism be for the Indian team? That’s an important point for me to take into consideration. I don’t think many guys would say that Virat and Murali Vijay and these guys are not good players of spin. Obviously they are very good players of spin, but in this series so far they have also managed to find some difficulty. So yeah, there might be something, but when you look at it in perspective, I don’t think there was much in it,” he added.
Amla played an integral role in South Africa’s victory in Nagpur in 2010 when he slammed an unbeaten 253 that helped them crush India by an innings and six runs.
He finished as the highest run-getter in that series with 490 runs to his credit in the two-match series, hitting centuries in all the three innings he played in that series.
But this time around, he has managed just 90 runs in the five innings played so far.
“Probably three of the toughest [matches] I have experienced in my Test career. The surface was probably the toughest I have had as well, and the cricket itself was really difficult. So, credit to India. They kind of bowled well and unfortunately we ended up on the wrong side of this game,” he said.
Amla was honest enough to claim that he and Faf du Plessis enjoyed quite a bit of luck during their 72-run stand for the fifth wicket, during which they stayed at the crease for nearly four-and-a-half hours or else it would have been similar to their horror show with the bat in the first innings.
“I think we could have still ended up all out for 70 or 100 in the second innings. There were so many plays and misses, edges that could have gone to hand, so it’s easy to say that, how we batted in the second innings, we could have batted in the first innings, but I think the circumstances were different. Some balls go to hand, some balls don’t go to hand,” he said.
It also ended South Africa’s nine-year unbeaten run in away Tests series and Amla, again, put it down to the conditions.
“Yeah, very disappointing. Fortunately, throughout my career, we have been travelling away and managing to play very good cricket. I suppose one kind of consolation would be that the conditions we have had to play were probably never like we have had when we have played away from home, and that type of challenge we have never experienced before.
"But it is very disappointing to lose a series, away from home, after nine years, and to be part of it, and I hope it doesn’t happen again for us,” he said.
