Amla, de Villiers centuries steer South Africa to 351

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

The four ODIs that AB de Villiers played in the lead-up to the World Cup saw him stutter with as many failures. He seems to have recovered most of the lost ground as he slammed his second successive century this series.

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

Mohali: Mar 3, 2011

 

The four ODIs that AB de Villiers played in the lead-up to the World Cup saw him stutter with as many failures. He seems to have recovered most of the lost ground as he slammed his second successive century this series. De Villiers made 134 to guide the South Africans to a position of great strength.

 

After a brief slip-up at the toss, the Dutch captain Peter Boren recovered to decide that he would go on to field first. It was on expected lines given that the conditions were muggy and while they themselves did not have the bowling to take toll of them, the Dutch probably knew that the South Africans had enough in their tank to make the ball talk.

 

It was a surprise to see the South Africans drop a spin bowler for a batsman against an Associate side. One would have thought that if the conditions were deemed to assist the quicker bowlers and with Jacques Kallis still in his early days after returning from his injury to don the role of the third quick bowler for the side, it may have made more sense to play Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

 

Netherlands, on the other hand, decided to continue with the same playing eleven.

 

It was a slow start to the innings from South Africa, brought about by a track that saw the ball gripping on it, thanks probably due to the overnight rains. Stroke-making was arduous, at least till AB de Villiers got to the middle anyway. Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla found it difficult to work their way out in a manner that they would have liked in the first Powerplay.

 

At the end of the tenth over, only 43 had been added and when Smith, at 51 and Jacques Kallis, at 58 were sent back in quick succession, the South Africans looked to be in a bit of a bother. 15 came off the Bowling Powerplay and allowed Netherlands to harbour hopes of a restricting South Africa to a manageable total.

 

Unfortunately, that was the last of the wickets that the side saw in a long time. De Villiers continued his sublime form even as the overhead sun helped drying all moisture away, making the batting much easier.

 

Hashim Amla had had an edgy start as well and had a couple of reprieves at the start of the game. He edged one to the wicket-keeper and would have walked had the umpires not decided to review it – the ball seemed to have bounced before hitting the keeper’s gloves.

 

Then, there was an lbw shout which could have gone either way but Amla was declared not-out and he overcame these early issues to kick on and get to another century. The hundred came off 121 balls before he was sent back for 113 (130 balls).  

 

At the other end, even as Amla went about his business in serene manner, de Villiers took every chance that he got to get that extra run. He was responsible in keeping the momentum up during the entire innings which can be seen from the fact that after his first six balls – when he scored three – there was not a single moment in the innings, that his strike-rate went less than 100.

 

Continuing from he had left off, de Villiers followed Amla to get to his century as well, coming off 88 balls. This was his second successive century in this World Cup and he celebrated it with three straight sixes off the next three off Bernard Loots. His 34 runs after the 100 came off nine balls before he was run-out, helping the side get 69 in their Powerplay overs.

 

Then, JP Duminy bull-dozed his way to a 15-ball 40 towards the end of the innings to propel South Africa to 351/5 in their 50 overs.

 

Brief Scores: South Africa 351 for 5 in 50 overs (AB de Villiers 134, Hashim Amla 113, JP Duminy 40; Ryan ten Doeschate 3 for 72, Bernard Loots 1 for 60) vs Netherlands.

 

(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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