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Amla happy with turnaround

DUBAI - South African batting mainstay Hashim Amla has long been regarded as a Test specialist. However, some prolific performances in one-dayers this season from the 27-year old batsman places him as one of the most consistent players in ODIs.

Having smashed five one-day centuries this year, Amla concentrates a lot on timing and placement for scoring runs in the shorter format of the game.

He cracked a match-winning century in South Africa’s two-run victory over Pakistan in the third one-dayer for the Cool & Cool Cup in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. Following his superb form in the last six months where has scored 865 runs in his last 11 ODI innings, Amla smashed 119 on Tuesday to boost the South African total.

With two more matches to be played on Friday and Monday here, South Africa have taken a 2-1 lead in the five-match series and Amla is happy how the things have turned out for him.

“Right now, I am tired at the moment. But I am just trying to keep things simple and I am happy that things are going my way,” Amla told reporters at a post-match press conference.

“I have been working on my game. I would say this was one of the better one-day international hundreds I scored,” he added.

Asked about the Dubai wicket, he said: “I initially thought that it would bounce a little more than what I expected. I think it will keep low in the next matches which will make it difficult to bat on.”

Stand-in skipper Johan Botha was relieved to clinch the thriller in the last over. “I would say this was one of the best knocks I have seen in which I have been involved. When other batsmen fumbled, Amla looked very comfortable and batted at ease,” he said.

“It was a close one. But our boys did well to win it,” Botha said.

Asked about his decision to hand over Rusty Theron the crucial last over, the captain said: “I have known him for three to four years now and he is used to such situations. He has got it right most of the time. Yes, it got a little closer here but happy to have won it.”

Meanwhile, despite the defeat, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was happy to see the performance of Fawad Alam, who scored a brilliant half-century. However, he now wants to see more improvement from his team in bowling and fielding. “It was sad to lose a close match. But we have taken lots of positives since we won the second match. So we should come back strong in the next game,” he said.

“We fielded well today. But we are still not up to the standards of South Africa, who are a top professional side. They are exceptional in all departments, especially fielding. If we had fielded like them probably we would have saved another 30 runs and that could have given us a different result,” Afridi added.

pradeep@khaleejtimes.com