Zeenews Sports Bureau
The Oval: It has proved to be a great test match for Hashim Amla. On day 4, he made history by becoming the first South African batsman to score a triple ton in Test matches.
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Amla reached the milestone off 515 balls. The talismanic right-hander first improvised his individual score of 253 runs and then surpassed AB de Villiers highest score for South Africa (278 runs) before reaching the historic mark.
Skipper Graeme Smith declared the innings at tea and by then the visitors had piled up a lead of 252 runs. Amla remained unbeaten on 311 runs and Jacques Kallis remained unbeaten on 182. Both of them shared an unbeaten 373-run stand for the third wicket.
Smith’s decision proved to be spot on as Philander dismissed Cook for a duck. Trott (10) and Pietersen (16) also didn’t last for long and were dismissed by Steyn and Morkel. England skipper Andrew Strauss showed some resilience before he was dismissed by Tahir for 27 runs.
The day entirely belonged to Amla who scored the first triple hundred in England since Graham Gooch’s 333 in 1990. It was an almost flawless innings where Amla entertained the crowd with some superb ground strokes.
First Published: Sunday, July 22, 2012, 15:43