Harbhajan salutes man of the series Hashim Amla

"Amla toh Dravid se upar ho gaya. Rahul Dravid was India's wall. Amla has become a bigger wall," commented a spectator at the Eden Gardens yesterday in excitement at the South African batsman's heroic batting. It was an amazing statement considering Dravid's awesome record (he has scored 843 runs in eight Tests) at this venue and best summed up Hashim Amla's heroic performance in the second Test between India and South Africa yesterday.

Amla has done his job of accumulating runs so silently that he's been hardly noticed. At tea yesterday, India looked to be heading to an easy victory after reducing SA to 250 for seven. The Eden Gardens crowd only started to feel Amla's real impact in the dying moments of the second Test. He had the crowd on the edge of their seats by batting out the final day and taking South Africa to within 20 minutes of drawing the Test and with it claiming the No 1 spot.

Lone man standing
It would be fair to say that it was Amla versus India at Eden yesterday. With wickets tumbling around him at regular intervals, Amla single-handedly threatened to deny India's victory bid by facing 394 balls while scoring an unbeaten 123. Amla's fight can be appreciated by the fact that the next best score for South Africa was Ashwell Prince's 23.

It was Amla's series all the way, as heu00a0 aggregated 490 runs. He batted like a machine, getting hundreds in all his three walks to the crease with a sequence of 253 not out, 114 and 123 not out. Overall on the tour, he was dismissed just once. In the tour game against Board President' XI, he retired after scoring 72.

He exhibited a strong mind, calm demeanour and showed abundance of patience. Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra bowled superbly on the final day but Amla was a picture of calm assurance.

Asked abut his mental strength, Amla said: "When at the back of your mind you know you have to bat the whole day, to break it down is the key... ball by ball, over by over. It's just the basics. There is no science to it. I just wanted to keep it simple."

Harbhajan paid rich tributes to his SA opponent. "Amla batted very well. Most of the teams, when they come here, they don't know much about the spin, whether it is turning, bouncing or keeping low," said Harbhajan.
"But he was very calm throughout and that was probably the key. He kept on playing to his strength, never took any chances. He never looked to do something fancy and just played cricketing shots. I think he was the best batsman in the South African batting line-up."