South Africa’s test captain Hashim Amla has said that the pitch laid out at Nagpur was the toughest he has batted on. Amla, along with Faf Du Plessis, was the only batsman for South Africa, who displayed a bit of resistance in the second innings. With Indian spinners hovering like vultures over the Proteas batsmen, Amla fought extremely hard in order to get his team closer to the mark. However, Amla was dismissed by Amit Mishra for his vigil of 39.
“The surface was probably the toughest that I have had and the cricket itself was really difficult,” Amla said. “Credit to India, they kind of bowled well. Unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong side of this game,” Amla said.
“One consolation would be that the conditions we played in. We haven’t experienced this type of challenge before,” he said. “I haven’t played on this before in my life anywhere away from home so I suppose it’s a bit of consolation because it was really challenging and you never know if we had come against this before what would have happened,” said the South African captain.
Amla also said that the duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh would have been unplayable on the Nagpur wicket. “When I first came to India in 2008 and even in 2010, I was facing Anil Kumble, Harbhajan,” Amla said. “I think if I had to face them on wickets like this I don’t think I would have got any runs either. Facing them here would have been an nightmare.”
Amla was quick to add that wickets like these made batting incredibly difficult. “The wickets have played their part in making it difficult for all the batters. There hasn’t been a hundred in the series yet and just a handful of fifties, and that’s for both teams. It would be harsh to say this South African team has struggled to score runs. If you look at the Indian team although they are on the winning side, it’s been tough for their batters as well.”