South Africa coach Russell Domingo did not sound too worried about the indifferent form shown so far on the tour by Test captain Hashim Amla, even if the opening Test of the four-match contest is just round the corner.
"Amla is a quality player. We know a big knock from him is round the corner. He's batting well in the nets," said Domingo in his post-match press conference at the Brabourne Stadium after the drawn two-day practice encounter against Indian cricket Board President's XI.
Amla was dismissed for 1 by Board President's XI medium pacer Shardul Thakur today morning, caught edging to the slip cordon.
Amla, who has scored 6770 runs in 84 Tests with 23 hundreds to his credit - four of which had been made in six previous matches in India - and having a healthy career average of 52-plus, has had a poor run on this tour that started with the T20 series against the hosts.
His sequence of scores have been 36 and 21 in the completed T20 Internationals, 37, 17, 5, 7 and 23 in the five ODIs followed by his lowest score today.
South Africa's best batsman and in-form ODI captain, AB de Villiers, today scored a superb 112 off 131 balls with 18 hits to the fence, and Domingo said he was easing back into the Test mindset after missing the tour to Bangladesh.
"AB (de Villiers) last played a Test match in January against the West Indies and missed the Bangladesh tour. That's why he was leaving a few balls (without attacking them)," said Domingo about de Villiers' ton, his fourth on the tour after his triple in the 3-2 ODI series victory.
