South Africa opener Hashim Amla achieved another milestone of scoring 8,000 Test runs and become fourth South Africa batsmen to score more than 8,000 runs in Test cricket. While playing against England in the second Test at Trent Bridge on Friday Amla achieved the mark with a pull shot off Mark Wood. Other batsmen, who scored more than 8,000 runs are, Jacques Kallis (13,206), Graeme Smith (9,253) and AB de Villiers (8,074).
Amla is the slowest among the four to reach this landmark. Last year when Amla reached 7,000 runs mark he took 152 innings to achieve the mark which is four more than Graeme Smith, who is the quickest South African to reach 7,000 runs mark. At the same time, Kallis and De Villiers are second and third on the list, both have taken 151 innings.
Amla, who is a consistent performer for the Proteas, has achieved a lot in international cricket. However, he has been going through a lean patch as he averages just 31 in his last 12 matches. Earlier, Amla became the 8th player to score a hundred on his 100th Test. After scoring the hundred he expresses his frustration at not being able to score big runs consistently. “There was a bit of frustration that I have been not getting runs in the last couple of games and not contributing to the team’s success. I wanted to my focus as true as possible. No side attractions, no razzmatazz, I had a more important thing and that was to try and work on my game. I needed to score runs,” he had said.
