South African batsmen have failed to prove themselves, says Hashim Amla
South Africa’s captain Hashim Amla expressed disappointment at his team’s performances in the ongoing Freedom series against India. He admitted that so far there hasn’t been any positive take aways from a team point of view.
Amla told reporters, “From a team point of view I don’t see a lot of positives to take to be honest, but every time there is a disappointing session or a disappointing day of cricket it is the reflection that happens afterwards that is more valuable than most things.” He also said that South Africa’s batsmen failed to perform well though the wicket at Bengaluru was good. “It was a very good wicket. We didn’t get going with any partnerships, AB [De Villiers] was exceptional as always and unfortunately nobody stuck around with him long enough to post a big total,” added the visiting team’s skipper.
At Bengaluru, the Proteas scored 214 runs in their first innings while India made 80 for no loss before the match was stopped due to rain. Except Dean Elgar (38), AB de Villiers (85) and Morne Morkel (22) none from the visiting team scored above 20. The captain himself managed to get only seven runs.
However, Amla was expecting things to get better for the team. According to a report by India Today, the 32-year-old said, “Test matches are not always won on the opening day, there was a lot of time left for us to claw our way back into the game. You never know what could have happened but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. It would have been great for us to get some confidence after the poor starts with the bat but Nagpur is a different Test and hopefully that is when it starts.” He believes that these four days of no play has given the team time to focus on the loopholes.
Despite having a good start in the first test as they bowled out India for a mere total of 201 runs, the Proteas did not perform well while batting. They could not cross the 200-run mark in any of their innings. In three innings that South Africa has batted, they have just managed to get 501 runs. Before the Nagpur test that starts from November 25, they need to mend their batting.
South Africa’s skipper is not sure about Dale Steyn’s possibilities of returning to the team post injury. Amla said, “I'm not sure, I haven't touched base with the physio as yet. I didn't want to until this game is done, which it is now. In the coming days, we will probably have a better idea.”