5-hour Amla vigil ends as South Africa fight for Test draw

India finally ended skipper Hashim Amla's defiant vigil of 25 runs over nearly five hours on Monday as South Africa crawled to 94-3 in a bid to save the fourth and final Test in New Delhi.

At lunch on the last day, AB de Villiers was batting on 26 from 203 balls with Faf du Plessis unbeaten on two, the visitors scoring just 22 runs from 35 overs in the first session.

The world number one side, who have already conceded the series 2-0, require another 387 runs with seven wickets in hand, a near-impossible task with just two sessions of play remaining.

India, who made 334 in their first innings, set the Proteas a massive target of 481 after declaring their second innings at 267-5.

Playing for a draw, Amla and de Villiers resumed the day with the same dogged resolution that they exhibited on Sunday.

Their ultra-defensive batting clearly frustrated Indian skipper Virat Kohli who even brought himself on to bowl one over.

But it was left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja who gave his team the only breakthrough with the new ball.

The left-arm spinner made the ball drift into the right-handed Amla who tried to defend once again but the ball sneaked past to hit the top of his off-stump.

Amla's nearly five-hour stay at the wicket yielded just 25 runs off 244 balls, the slowest in Tests by a batsman who has played 200 balls or more.

The 27-run stand that Amla shared with de Villiers off 253 balls was the lowest among all Test partnerships involving 175 or more balls.

Jadeja impressed the most with the ball, giving away just 10 runs from 35 overs, 16 of them being consecutive maidens.

De Villiers, who stoutly defended against both spin and pace, had to seek on-field treatment after being hit hard twice on the gloves in an over by paceman Umesh Yadav.
Source: AFP