Hashim Amla urges South Africa not to over complicate troubles against spin bowling

Amla feels he along with Faf du Plessis have to shoulder much of the blame for South Africa’s batting failures

South African skipper Hashim Amla has urged his side to continue playing positive cricket and not to worry too much about the inadequacies the side has faced so far in the Test series, especially against spin bowling, ESPNCricinfo reports.

Despite much of the blame for the visitors’ defeat in the opening Test being laid on the rank turner at Mohali, the 32-year-old admitted that the Proteas have only themselves for its troubles against spin - something which was again evident as South Africa were dismissed for 214 in the first innings of the Bengaluru Test with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picking up eight between them.

AB de Villiers, playing his 100th Test, was the only one who managed to put up a fight with a knock of 85 from 105 balls.

"If I had won the toss, I would have batted first anyway. I think it was a good wicket," he said. "We just didn't get any partnerships going. AB was exceptional as always. Unfortunately, no one stuck around with him long enough to post a big total."

Amla, however, added that he doesn’t want his batsmen to change their approach to batting and insisted upon playing a positive brand of cricket.

"You've got to be positive in everything you do. If the guys got out playing a positive shot, I am happy because at least he tried to take the game forward and tried to score runs. That's the name of the game," Amla said.

Play was possible only on the opening day of the Bengaluru Test, but Amla feels that his side could have well made a comeback had the rain stayed away.

"Although we got bowled out for 220 odd and India were in a good position at the end for the day, Test matches are not always won on the first day. There was a lot of time left for us to claw our way back into the game. You never know what could have happened," he added.

Not much cricket has been played so far in the Test series so far with the Mohali Test concluding within three days before the dampener at Bengaluru leaving plenty of time for the visitors to work on their weaknesses. But Amla reiterated his view that not much was wrong with his side’s approach, especially when it came to the opening slot.

"We've had a lot of time to reflect, but we don't want to over-reflect. It's pretty simple: you try and be as positive as possible and sometimes it was the lack of turn that outdid us. You don't overdo it, you try and keep the game as simple as possible. We've had three innings that haven't gone to our plan and I am sure in the Nagpur Test, hopefully, we come good. We have talked about it, but you can't over talk about something and complicate it more than it is," Amla said.

He strongly defended South Africa’s opening pair of Dean Elgar and Stiaan van Zyl and even took part of the blame upon himself for South Africa’s repeated batting failures.

"I've always felt opening batting is probably the most difficult job in Test cricket. Sometimes you've got to field for 150 overs and then you've got 10 minutes to put your pads on. It is quite a demanding position to be in but Dean and Stiaan are our best openers and they will do a great job for us," Amla said. "The fact that myself and Faf in this game haven't got going, we only have ourselves to blame. No one else," he said.