Picture Credit: Twitter
Former South African batsman Hashim Amla is widely considered as one of the most technically-sound batsmen to have ever played the game of cricket. The right-handed batsman scored 9282 runs in 124 Tests at a stupendous average of 46.6. But just like India's Rahul Dravid, Amla did not score the runs very freely and often played the role of holding one end with his flawless defense. He had a strike-rate of 50 in Test cricket and the fans got a glimpse of Amla's resilience, patience and grit once again on Wednesday.
Amla stands like a wall in Southampton
In the County Championship 2021 match, Hampshire posted a huge total of 488 in the first innings and bowled out Surrey on 72. With the follow-on being enforced, Surrey had a huge task up their sleeves to survive the whole day in difficult batting conditions in Southampton. As expected, they crumbled under pressure once again and lost a few quick wickets.
However, Hashim Amla rolled back the years and produced a valiant fight for his side. In pursuit of saving the match, the 38-year-old produced a masterclass of defensive batting. At the time of writing, Amla was batting at a score of 26 runs from 179 deliveries with Surrey's score reading 80/5 in 72 overs. With still a lot of overs remaining, it will be interesting to see if Amla can continue his resilience in what would surely be one of the best saves ever in red-ball cricket.
Twitter hails Amla for his grit
No matter if Surrey manage to draw the match or not, the 38-year-old certainly set Twitter on fire with his art of defensive batting as he was batting at a strike-rate of 14.02 (at the time of writing). The fans continue to pour in tweets whenever he scored the next run. Check out the incredible sequence of tweets covering the innings of Amla here: