Must-win game for SA, admits Amla

Hashim Amla realises the importance of the third Test beginning here on Wednesday. If they win, they stay in race to claim the series. If they lose, they surrender the series and if they draw, they can only hope to save it by winning the final Test on Delhi.

“If you look at being one-nil down, it’s a must-win game for us to win the series,” he admitted. “That allows you a bit of more of that (to take risk). But we came here with the mentality of winning the series. So from the first game, we had five front-line bowlers. For me, that’s a very attacking option because we need to take 20 wickets to win a Test match. We’ve managed to do that (take 20 wickets)... Hopefully in this Test match, we’d pick up 20 wickets and score the runs… The issue has been more with the lack of runs than the lack of wickets. Hopefully, we’ll get the runs and continue to play the game to win,” he remarked.

While almost confirming that Dale Steyn, who is recovering from a stiff groin, won’t be playing the third Test, Amla tried to explain his current batting position, which is No 4, while he has had most success batting at 3.

“When I took over the captaincy, one of the ideas was to give me a bit more time, especially when we fielded first, to bat at 4. But you never know… We’re a team in a little bit of transition, with a couple of new faces, so we’re still finding the perfect batting order. So yes, there’s no reason I couldn’t bat at 3 at some stage.”

Amla felt he could have done with some runs from his bat. “I definitely would have liked to have got more runs. Hopefully, the runs are still to come.”

The South African skipper ruled out playing three front-line spinners. “We have JP who bowls off-spin quite regularly, so he adds an option as a spinner,” he pointed out. “We have Dean Elgar who bowls left-arm orthodox… To play three front-line spinners, I’m not sure if that’s possibility for us.”