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Hasim Amla took his career to a significant new level when he made his maiden Test match double century and went on to a career first-class best as well on the second day of the first Test against India at Nagpur on Sunday.
The Proteas' No. 3 might have made that double century at Chennai two years ago when he was unfortunate to be run out on 159 or at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium the year before when the declaration came at his previous highest score of 176.
By the time he had finished with an unbeaten 253 when Graeme Smith applied the declaration the Proteas had their highest ever Test total in India of 558/6 on the board and the pressure is now squarely on the Indians to come out of this contest in good shape.
They made a promising enough start with 24/0 on the board off four overs by the close but the hard work still lies ahead of them. It was easy to forget the contribution Jacques Kallis had made in taking his score to 173 (351 balls, 15 fours and 2 sixes) before falling to one of the many deliveries that would start to nip unpredictably such was the domination of Amla on day two.
"Hashim got written off by a lot of people at the start of his career," commented Kallis, "but he has proven them all wrong. That sums up the character of the man that he is. He has become a very important part of our top order and he is going to make many more runs for South Africa."
Amla himself paid tribute to the grand master of South African modern batsmanship. "There is no better place to learn from a batting master class than to have the box office seat at the other end of the pitch," he said of Kallis' innings.
“I will be even happier if we can pick up some quick wickets in the morning. It was a challenge to bat through a whole day's play and there were some testing moments against the spinners and again when the seamers got the ball to reverse."
