Hashim Amla completes 5000 Test runs

By Nadene Smith

BRISBANE, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) November 9, 2012: South African top-order batsman Hashim Amla became the seventh Proteas batsman to score 5,000 runs in Test career on Friday.

Hashim Amla is now 85^th in the list of all-time list of batsmen with most runs in Test career as he swiftly keeps overtaking top players in the world in that ladder as he is yet to get out in the Brisbane Test.

Hashim Amla joined the elite group of batsmen with 5,000 Test runs on third ball of the 49^th over of the first Test between Australia and South Africa when he turned a delivery by Mike Hussey off his pads towards square in the post-lunch session and raised his bat in the air to acknowledge the jubilant crowd that saw the statistics on the big screen at Gabba Cricket Stadium.

Hashim Amla is the seventh South African batsman to have scored over 5,000 Test runs after Jacques Kallis with 12,660 runs, Grame Smith with 8,324 runs, Gary Kirsten with 7,289 runs, Herschelle Gibbs with 6,167 runs, AB de Villiers with 5,618 runs, and Mark Boucher with 5,515 runs.

The way Hashim Amla is scoring his runs in the year 2012 it looks he will be either around Mark Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs at the end of the current series or would have crossed them.

The Year 2012 has been quite fruitful for the South African top order batsman as he is at the fourth place in the list of top scorers in international cricket. Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka is on top of the list with 1,928 runs, followed by Virat Kohli of India with 1,903 runs, Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka with 1,772 runs, Hashim Amla with 1,638 runs, David Warner of Australia with 1,569 runs, and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka with 1,528 runs.

Hashim Amla is the only batsman in world cricket now to have healthy average of above 50 runs in both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He has average of 50.50* in Test cricket and average of 59.55 in ODI cricket.