South Africa cricket has given the world many great players. From Kepler Wessels to AB de Villiers, from Lance Kluser to Mark Boucher, there have been players coming and going who have brought laurels to the South African team. The same team also saw a player who, in exchange for his ability, set the flags of record in international cricket. Yes, we are talking about Hashim Amla, one of the most successful South African batsmen.
Celebrating his 39th birthday on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Considered a Test specialist early in his career, Amla proved his mettle in white-ball cricket as well and played a number of fast-paced innings. In fact, he is the fastest batsman to reach the landmark of 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 ODI runs. Let us know some untold things about them.
I had a passion for cricket since childhood
Today Hashim Amla was born in Durban (South Africa) on 31 March 1983. Dreamed of becoming a cricketer since school days and igniting domestic cricket from the youth cricket circuit, he reached the top level i.e. international cricket in 2004. In November 2004, he started his career playing a Test match against India and then continued to bat fiercely for 15 years.
When the commentator said terrorist
In 2006, something happened with Amla which caused an uproar in international cricket. Actually, the match was going on between South Africa and Sri Lanka. In which Hasim Amla bowled a ball in which he got the wicket. The late cricketer Dean Jones, who was doing commentary as soon as he took his wicket, gave a controversial statement and called him a terrorist. He said that, “The terrorist got another wicket.”
That commentary was telecast all over the world and millions of cricket fans listened to it. Sports fans and players around the world condemned his statement for his statement. However, after the controversy escalated, he apologized for his statement, but by then the matter had progressed a lot. Due to his statement, the broadcaster immediately canceled his contract.
a flurry of records
Hasim Amla is the fastest player to score 2000 runs, 3000, 4000 runs, 5000 runs, 6000 runs, 7000 runs in ODI cricket. With this, he is the first and only player to score a triple century in a Test match for South Africa. Till now his record has not been broken by any African player. With this, he holds the record of scoring 1000-1000 runs in Test and ODI in the same year.
longest innings in ODI
Amla made the highest partnership of 247 runs for South Africa for the first wicket in ODIs with Faf du Plessis. He is the first player from South Africa to score 25 centuries in ODI cricket. He is the fourth batsman in the world to score 25-25 centuries in both Test and ODI cricket. The ODI record for the highest partnership for any wicket for South Africa with Quinton de Kock, when South Africa scored 282 runs without losing a wicket in the match against Bangladesh.
such an international career
Hashim Amla’s statistics prove that when he said goodbye to cricket in 2019, then all the world’s stalwarts called him the great player of modern cricket. Hashim Amla played 124 Test matches between 2004 and 2019 in which he scored 9282 runs at an average of 46.64, including 28 centuries and 41 half-centuries. In ODI cricket, he played 181 matches and scored 8113 runs at an average of 49.46 with 27 centuries and 39 half-centuries. In T20 International cricket, his bat scored 1277 runs in 44 matches.