Smoking Hash - the Amla strain Print E-mail
Category: Match Reports
Written by Luke Tagg   
Monday, 31 May 2010 00:19
South Africa chased down 304 runs in Dominica today to extend their ODI winning streak against the West Indies to 10 in a row, with a series whitewash just around the corner.

A brilliant last over from Dwayne Bravo almost soured matters somewhat, and it probably shouldn't have come down to the last ball, but you can't argue a 4-0 series scoreline.

At the heart of the action all series has been Hashim Amla, who was three extra Blackberrys from the four games played. Two of his three career ODI centuries have come in this series, including his brilliant hundred today, and he also became the fastest South African to reach 1,000 ODI runs.

The Windies have had no answer to his flawless technique and frankly I hope they don't ask me to elaborate. I'm all out of answers myself.

As good as AB de Villiers has been (two fifties and a century) his efforts have paled in comparison to Amla's relentless accumulation of runs. There could have been some very different results in this series had the Windies been able to get him out.

Although Graeme Smith is clearly not yet in any sort of decent form, he has been at the crease long enough to help Hash set up a string of imposing totals. Their opening partnerships in the series so far have been as follows:

53, 89, 53, 59

Jacques Kallis has chipped in with two half-centuries at a decent clip and AB has been coming in at 4 and guiding the innings home. There's been a bit of this and that from the likes of JP Duminy and David Miller, but by and large the top order has not yet failed.

They've put enough runs on the board in each game for the bowlers to defend, and they've been helped greatly by a generally lacklustre attitude from the West Indies.

Today's game could easily have been won by the Windies, for example - numerous times. They dropped JP Duminy at least 23 times in one over alone, fer chrissakes.

What it means is that it's very difficult to pin down where South Africa currently stands, in case 4-0 isn't good enough for you. Geoff Boycott's Mum could have chased down 300 today with nowt but a stick-a-roobahb, and she prolly wouldn't have left it to the last ball neither.

South Africa held their nerve, which is good, but would they have been able to do so against superior opposition? We aren't going to find out anytime soon.

In the meantime, the next best thing would be a 5-0 whitewash. Gotta be worth a point or two on the ODI Rankings table.

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