World cirket articles part 2

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The regeneration of Amla and Steyn

 

 

That South Africa finished off Pakistan at the Wanderers in a session was no great surprise. Seven wickets aren't a problem when the pitch has gone rogue and the opposition have just gone. If the finishers are Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander and Duanne Olivier, the job becomes a forgone conclusion. This is some South African attack, given greater breadth and option when Keshav Maharaj is included in it. England's batsmen will do well to hold these fellows at bay next Christmas. Much water will pass under the bridge before then, of course - such things as World Cups and Ashes battles. The schedule for 2019 is to be savoured.
What part in it, one wondered, will Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla play. Their cricket these past weeks has revealed both the influence of Father Time and a deep-rooted determination to overcome him.
At first Amla looked shot, as if lbw was the only option to the thin edge of his bat. As the series progressed however, his defence took the form of willpower - an indomitable will at that - and the longer he clawed to the memory of a glorious past, the more it came back to him. Eventually he began to look like, well, like Hashim Amla: the craftsman we knew so well; that resolute defender of his country's faith, whose sweet timing of the cricket ball captivates lovers of the game both at home and from far and wide of the Kwazulu Natal province in which he grew up. By the second part of his second innings at the Wanderers, the continuation on Sunday morning, when boundaries flowed like fast-running rivers, he was no longer the shadow that many had written off but instead the original edition of a cricketer who would not lie down.
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It seems a matter of course that he will torment the Sri Lankan bowlers who come next. Appearing slim, fit and still strong of mind and heart, he will turn 36 years of age in late March. It is only the eye that could fail him, as it has done many others before. At this stage of a career, only a split second of reaction separates the high and low of performance. Though Amla's trigger moves have mysterious ways, there is little different now from the routine and mechanism that has served him so securely throughout the making of 9231 Test match runs, across 122 matches, at an average score of 47.33 an innings.
After the match these two champions, born just three months apart, were interviewed together and spoke warmly of each other's regeneration. They have seen the best of times and have been surprised by the worst of times. Steyn had wondered if he would bowl fast again, a force of nature diminished by a shoulder injury that had no business to be so invasive. But bowl fast he has, like a man set free, whose deliverance has offered another life. There were hints of the outswinger and offcutter, subtle changes of length and pace, and perhaps best of all, the old menace of the hunter. Having scythed his way past Shaun Pollock and Sir Richard Hadlee on the list of all time wicket-takers, he now has a round 500 in the back of his mind. Just 67 to go then. The sheer joy of playing the game sparkled from his eyes, and like a rookie justifying his value to the coach, he offered the confident prediction that there were plenty of miles in his legs and forever the fire in his belly. The stories of Steyn and Amla have unwritten chapters to come.