Amla triple century puts England in strife
A triple century by Hashim Amla and four strikes by South Africa's bowlers had England reeling on the fourth day of the first Test match at the Oval on Sunday.
Amla made 311 not out as South Africa made 2-637 declared; a first innings lead of 252.
England were 4-102 at the close, needing another 150 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
Amla and Jacques Kallis (182 not out) batted with relentless concentration and skill as they put on an unbeaten 377 for the third wicket, a record for any wicket in matches between England and South Africa.
Whereas England had taken only one wicket in more than 13 hours of play between the early dismissal of Alviro Petersen on Friday and the tourists' declaration at tea on Sunday, the hosts were almost immediately in trouble in their second innings.
First innings century-maker Alastair Cook was caught behind off Vernon Philander off the eighth ball of the innings without scoring - the third opening batsman in the match to be dismissed for a duck.
Dale Steyn then produced a superb away swinger to have Jonathan Trott caught behind.
Kevin Pietersen played some bold strokes, hitting three boundaries in an innings of 16 before he played down the wrong line against Morne Morkel and had his middle stump knocked out of the ground.
England captain Andrew Strauss battled for more than two hours, making 27, before he top-edged a sweep against leg-spinner Imran Tahir and was caught at square leg.
Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara batted out the day but will resume on Monday with England still needing a big effort to avoid defeat in the first match of a three-match series.
Amla had earlier become the first South African to hit a Test triple century.
The country's previous highest score was 278 not out by AB de Villiers against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2010-11.
He batted for a total of 13 hours and nine minutes, facing 529 balls and hitting 35 fours, and gave only one difficult chance, to Strauss at slip off Ravi Bopara on Friday afternoon, when he was on 40.
England set ultra-defensive fields but could not halt the flow of runs.
With Amla on 299, England captain Andrew Strauss brought the field up to stop a single but the batsman played a rare lofted drive for four over cover off Tim Bresnan to earn a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd.
Kallis reached his 43rd Test century in measured style off 227 balls but then went on the attack as South Africa took the match far beyond England's reach. At the declaration he had faced 326 balls and hit 23 fours and a six.
Although it was Kallis's eighth century against England, it was only his second in four tours of the country.
Amla reached his double century off 392 balls and needed only another 123 deliveries to reach 300 with his 35th boundary.
Triple ton!
Triple ton!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
Especially impressive due to the fact that he achieved this despite his head being upside down!
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
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Sue U
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Re: Triple ton!
Ah, I see the words "Test match," so I know it must be about cricket, and apparently the English are on the wrong end of ... something (again). The rest is completely indecipherable.
GAH!
Re: Triple ton!
This should clear it up Sue.
Dale Steyn took five wickets as South Africa swept to an innings-and-12-run win in the first Test at The Kia Oval.
The pace bowler claimed 5-56 and Imran Tahir 3-63 to bowl England out for 240 shortly before tea on the final day.
Ian Bell's defiant 55 from 220 balls and Matt Prior's 40 failed to prevent England slipping to a first Test defeat at home since 2010.
Once they fell within six overs of each other, England were quickly finished off by a ruthless South Africa side.
Victory for South Africa - the last side to inflict an innings defeat on England, in early 2010 - capped a remarkable turnaround in fortunes after the hosts closed the first day on 267-3.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
I'm nothing if not helpful.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
It looks like all the words are English....they just don't make any sense!
Re: Triple ton!
I said something very similar about another description of this obscure sport once Kristina....It looks like all the words are English....they just don't make any sense!
I recognize the words, but I've never seen them arranged in that order before....
Near as I can figure, there were two teams for this whateveritwas ; South Africa and England, and after a whole bunch of stuff that looks like something written by Lewis Carroll, The South Africa watchamacallit won...
It apparently started with some guy stealing five wickets:
That must have resulted in a lot of pissed off croquet players....Dale Steyn took five wickets
And then there were:
Not bad but not all that impressive; I've had four strikes in a game when I've been bowling a few times....four strikes by South Africa's bowlers
And then a bunch of other incomprehensible stuff happened....(one thing that's always amazed me about cricket...how does a sport that takes forever to play and moves as slowly as a starfish on percodan, manage to run up scores like a pinball machine? Are the pitchers and fielders really that bad? I figure they just make the numbers up.)
However I was impressed by this:
Now there's a man who knows how to foul off a pitch....He batted for a total of 13 hours and nine minutes, facing 529 balls
Re: Triple ton!
Maybe this will clear things up for the less fortunate of our members..
An informative, entertaining and amusing report or what?England v South Africa: Hashim Amla's triple century proves another crushing blow for Graeme Swann.
As South Africa have been playing Test cricket for a hundred years, even allowing for a hiatus, it was some moment when Hashim Amla drove just over extra cover to bring up the country’s first triple century.
Amla would not have been allowed to play for South Africa before that hiatus, or but for that hiatus, which lasted from 1970 to 1992. So maybe there was some belated justice in a member of a community that had faced so many barriers in breaking this one.
No less gratifying was Jacques Kallis’s reaction at the other end. A phlegmatic man, the holder of most of the other South African batting records, he did a leap for joy as the record-breaking shot took Amla from 299 to the promised land.
Amla’s partnership of 377 with Kallis, never broken, was the highest third-wicket stand against England – and to think Amla’s stand of 259 with Graeme Smith had seemed big. Never before had England conceded two partnerships of 250 in one innings.
England did not have a prayer. Or perhaps they did have a prayer before start of play: O Lord, give us this day our daily wicket. But having been granted a wicket on Friday, and a second on Saturday, the Lord’s Day was not so generous.
Some spectators were surprised when South Africa declared at tea time: it was more adventurous than their declarations usually are. But England had nobody left to bowl. If, instead of ripping through England, South Africa had batted through to the end of the fifth day, with AB de Villiers and Jacques Rudolph and J-P Duminy to come, they would have strolled to the first four-figure Test score.
On Friday, Amla had entered a zone of relaxed, low-burn concentration and he did not leave it for two whole days. Nothing ruffled his serenity except, strangely, Ravi Bopara’s medium pace, off which he gave his only two chances: a caught-and-bowled and an edge past slip. He nicked Tim Bresnan past the keeper as well, but the rest of his 35 fours were pukkah and executed with an economy of movement that was breathtaking at best.
When drinks were taken on Sunday afternoon, Kallis drank and wiped away sweat with a towel. Amla took off his armguard, had no drink, and did nothing more than say a few words to Kallis and the 12th man, the left-arm reserve spinner Robin Peterson. If only Peterson had played, it could have been Pietersen c Petersen b Peterson.
It is the state of mind that another devout Muslim batsman often attained: Mohammad Yousuf. The highest third-wicket stand against England before Sunday's was made by Yousuf, after he had converted from Christianity, and Younis Khan at Headingley in 2006.
It is significant that although Amla is becoming a senior figure at 29, he still goes under the helmet at forward short-leg, his own man, rather than joining the slips. He is compact in technique and mindset since curtailing his backlift, and has not let his serenity be disturbed by joining the Indian Premier League.
While Amla maintained a fairly even tempo, Kallis added only 12 runs in the first hour, to reach 94, and cautiously felt for his hundred, before taking the attack to England. In his case, the IPL has been beneficial, loosening him up, saving him from constipation. His hundred took 227 balls, too slow for a great batsman going in when his team were on top; but Kallis’s strike-rate was 55 by the end, not far short of Amla’s.
Like Yousuf after one of his big innings, Amla did not take the field after batting, so he did not have a close look at the fruits of his labours, ie England’s collapse, until he returned for the final hour. But after his partnerships with Smith and Kallis, the pitch and England were showing signs of wear and tear.
At least Andrew Strauss, having broken his spectacles when throwing the ball on Saturday, broke his duck first ball and avoided spectacles.
Otherwise England’s specialist batting did little more than succumb.
England well know the crushing, humiliating effect of being made to look utterly impotent in the field, as they did it to Australia at Brisbane on the last Ashes tour. And nobody did Amla crush more than Graeme Swann, who recorded his worst figures in a Test innings on a ground that had been his favourite and on a pitch designed for him to be England’s match-winner.
The second Test will be at Headingley, where Swann has yet to take a Test wicket.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
Gob wrote:Maybe this will clear things up for the less fortunate of our members..
An informative, entertaining and amusing report or what?England v South Africa: Hashim Amla's triple century proves another crushing blow for Graeme Swann.
As South Africa have been playing Test cricket for a hundred years, even allowing for a hiatus, it was some moment when Hashim Amla drove just over extra cover to bring up the country’s first triple century.
Amla would not have been allowed to play for South Africa before that hiatus, or but for that hiatus, which lasted from 1970 to 1992. So maybe there was some belated justice in a member of a community that had faced so many barriers in breaking this one.
No less gratifying was Jacques Kallis’s reaction at the other end. A phlegmatic man, the holder of most of the other South African batting records, he did a leap for joy as the record-breaking shot took Amla from 299 to the promised land.
Amla’s partnership of 377 with Kallis, never broken, was the highest third-wicket stand against England – and to think Amla’s stand of 259 with Graeme Smith had seemed big. Never before had England conceded two partnerships of 250 in one innings.
England did not have a prayer. Or perhaps they did have a prayer before start of play: O Lord, give us this day our daily wicket. But having been granted a wicket on Friday, and a second on Saturday, the Lord’s Day was not so generous.
Some spectators were surprised when South Africa declared at tea time: it was more adventurous than their declarations usually are. But England had nobody left to bowl. If, instead of ripping through England, South Africa had batted through to the end of the fifth day, with AB de Villiers and Jacques Rudolph and J-P Duminy to come, they would have strolled to the first four-figure Test score.
On Friday, Amla had entered a zone of relaxed, low-burn concentration and he did not leave it for two whole days. Nothing ruffled his serenity except, strangely, Ravi Bopara’s medium pace, off which he gave his only two chances: a caught-and-bowled and an edge past slip. He nicked Tim Bresnan past the keeper as well, but the rest of his 35 fours were pukkah and executed with an economy of movement that was breathtaking at best.
When drinks were taken on Sunday afternoon, Kallis drank and wiped away sweat with a towel. Amla took off his armguard, had no drink, and did nothing more than say a few words to Kallis and the 12th man, the left-arm reserve spinner Robin Peterson. If only Peterson had played, it could have been Pietersen c Petersen b Peterson.
It is the state of mind that another devout Muslim batsman often attained: Mohammad Yousuf. The highest third-wicket stand against England before Sunday's was made by Yousuf, after he had converted from Christianity, and Younis Khan at Headingley in 2006.
It is significant that although Amla is becoming a senior figure at 29, he still goes under the helmet at forward short-leg, his own man, rather than joining the slips. He is compact in technique and mindset since curtailing his backlift, and has not let his serenity be disturbed by joining the Indian Premier League.
While Amla maintained a fairly even tempo, Kallis added only 12 runs in the first hour, to reach 94, and cautiously felt for his hundred, before taking the attack to England. In his case, the IPL has been beneficial, loosening him up, saving him from constipation. His hundred took 227 balls, too slow for a great batsman going in when his team were on top; but Kallis’s strike-rate was 55 by the end, not far short of Amla’s.
Like Yousuf after one of his big innings, Amla did not take the field after batting, so he did not have a close look at the fruits of his labours, ie England’s collapse, until he returned for the final hour. But after his partnerships with Smith and Kallis, the pitch and England were showing signs of wear and tear.
At least Andrew Strauss, having broken his spectacles when throwing the ball on Saturday, broke his duck first ball and avoided spectacles.
Otherwise England’s specialist batting did little more than succumb.
England well know the crushing, humiliating effect of being made to look utterly impotent in the field, as they did it to Australia at Brisbane on the last Ashes tour. And nobody did Amla crush more than Graeme Swann, who recorded his worst figures in a Test innings on a ground that had been his favourite and on a pitch designed for him to be England’s match-winner.
The second Test will be at Headingley, where Swann has yet to take a Test wicket.
oh yes...or maybe not...no, after trying to read it again, most assuredly not. I'm as baffled as ever, and likely to remain that way for the forseeable future...
But thanks for trying, Gob!
Re: Triple ton!
LOL!! Thanks for reading K!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
My first attempt at understanding cricket was when I read "Murder Must Advertise" by Dorothy Sayers. There is a multi-page (IIRC) description of a match between teams from the ad agency and one of its best clients. I've read and re-read the book, and NEVER got the cricket. Loved the rest of the book...
Re: Triple ton!
Oh cricket is easy to understand!
CRICKET: As explained to a foreigner...
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
well why didn't you say so in the first place...
Re: Triple ton!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Triple ton!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”