Hashim Amla joins elite club of centurions in 100th Test

Hashim Amla helped South Africa recover from 45-2, by pairing with Jean-Paul Duminy to take the score to 337. Duminy eventually perished to Sri Lankan pacer Lahiru Kumara, scoring 155 runs. With the unbeaten century, Amla became the second South African batsman to have scored a century in the 100th Test match of their career.

Before him, former South African skipper Graeme Smith achieved the feat against England in 2012. Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting was the only batsman in the Test cricket history to have scored centuries in both the innings of his 100th Test match. He had scored 120 in the first innings and an unbeaten 143 in the second innings in his 100th Test match against South Africa which was won by Australia by 8 wickets.

Along with Amla, a total of eight batsmen have scored a century in their 100th Test match. The other batsmen are England batsman Colin Cowdrey, Pakistan batsman Javed Miandad, West Indian star Gordon Greenidge, former England skipper Alec Stewart, Pakistan legend Inzamam-ul-Haq, and two-time Wolrd Champion Australian skipper Ricky Ponting.

With the century, Amla also ended his severe run drought this season. This was the first fifty-plus score by the South African batter in his last 10 innings. His previous fifty-plus score came against New Zealand in Centurion in August last year. Yesterday, Amla had reached his half-century off 109 balls and took only another 60 balls to get to his 100.