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Amla, De Villiers fight back for SA

WELL TIMED: Hashim Amla of SA drives on day one of the first Test against West Indies in Centurion yesterday Photo: Duif du ToIt/ Gallo Images
WELL TIMED: Hashim Amla of SA drives on day one of the first Test against West Indies in Centurion yesterday Photo: Duif du ToIt/ Gallo Images

WEST Indies played ball for 15 of the deliveries bowled on the first day of the Test series against South Africa here yesterday.

WEST Indies played ball for 15 of the deliveries bowled on the first day of the Test series against South Africa here yesterday.

Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers took superb care of the remaining 454.

They pulled the innings back from the brink of 57/3 and pushed it to 340/3 at stumps.

Amla scored 133 not out, De Villiers made an undefeated 141, and they will resume their partnership this morning on 283 - SA's highest for the fourth wicket against any opponents.

"I get tired of looking at this guy down the other end of the wicket," De Villiers joked about his partner, who he said had helped him get through a long day.

"We tried to keep it light-hearted out there - quite a few little jokes. He is actually a really funny guy in the middle and I love batting with a guy like that, who keeps it simple."

After lunch, Amla and De Villiers hatched another party game, who could play the most audacious stroke?

De Villiers drove Sulieman Benn for four through a gap at cover that was barely big enough to accommodate a pizza box.

Amla, also facing the left-arm spinner, found the space and the timing to scold a full delivery swiftly to the square leg ropes.

The closest West Indies came to separating them was four balls after lunch with SA on 98/3, when Kemar Roach rattled Amla's off-stump without dislodging a bail.

Amla and De Villiers would have had a quiet chuckle at that.

But so, said fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell, did the Windies: "We saw the funny aide of it - 'oh damn'." Not, however, for long: "That [feeling] soon disappeared."

So did the ball, often all the way to the boundary.

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