How Hashim Amla hashed the IPL in 2017

Amla will primarily be remembered for his escapades in ODIs and Tests, though there is one brief but underappreciated part of his career as well: his IPL stint with Punjab

On Wednesday, Hashim Amla announced his retirement from all forms of the game. He already called quits at the international level following the 2019 World Cup but played a few county seasons for Surrey afterward. He leaves his playing career on a high of helping Surrey win their 20th County Championship title; their first in 4 years.

There will be many things Amla will be remembered for in his playing days. From becoming the fastest to score ODI runs in several increments of 1000 (before Virat Kohli broke some of his records), being one of the pillars of the Proteas batting lineup for many years in ODIs and Tests, well known for fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan even when it coincided with matches and in general, known for being a very pious individual who stayed true to his religious values which in turn inspired fans and players of the Islamic faith alike, the list goes on and on.

However, what that list will likely not contain for the vast majority of fans would be his time in the IPL for the Punjab Kings, who were known as the Kings XI Punjab at the time.

It is an era of his career (albeit a very brief one at that) that very much goes underappreciated and is very rarely talked about. And it probably makes sense as to why to a certain extent: if you go by his aggregate T20 and T20I numbers, it more or less reflects that of your typical anchor.

Not exactly an elite one, but still nothing special either of note that his numbers would tell.

Though if you are one that follows the IPL closely, it is likely you already know what I am talking about. Or perhaps this premise has jogged your memory. So sit back, relax, and let’s take this brief trip down memory lane.

His tale in the league begins the exact same way it did for Chris Gayle, who went on to become one of the IPL greats: signed as a replacement player after having initially gone unsold in the auction.

However, unlike Gayle, Amla wasn’t replacing a bowler, but was a like-for-like replacement, that too of someone who had turned out for Punjab every season since the inception of the league: Shaun Marsh.

Now Shaun isn’t exactly considered an all-time great by most IPL fans, but akin to Amla’s brief stint in the IPL, he was extremely underappreciated considering he played for Punjab for 10 consecutive seasons with a more than decent record. A decade!

Amla made his IPL debut mid-season in 2016 with Marsh ruled out of the remainder of the season having picked up a back injury. It was more than a month into the league, and it was a predicament all too familiar to Punjab fans: languishing at the bottom of the table.

On debut against the Delhi Daredevils (now known as Delhi Capitals), Amla could contribute only one run to the total off the five balls he faced, as he was quickly ran out by their skipper Zaheer Khan.

Scores of 21 and a 5-ball duck followed, but Amla shed his skin and played the innings of his life in his fourth outing against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Opening the batting with his captain Murali Vijay, Amla took on the charge right from the first over, against a more than potent attack of the eventual winner of the Orange Cap that season Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rehman, who would go on to become the first and only foreign player to win the Emerging Player of the Season Award to date. Karn Sharma, dubbed as the luck charm by many, was also a part of that attack.

The knock earmarked the beginning of a modus operandi that would regularly be prevalent for his eventual success in the league: an excellent offside game that complemented his powerplay maximizing along with some cheeky unorthodox shots here and there, and a strong backfoot game that enabled him to play the ball late.

He ended the powerplay standing on 32 off 18 deliveries and finished on 96 off 56 deliveries striking at 171.43. It wasn’t that he was suddenly bludgeoning the ball out of the blue, it was pure timing, finesse, and class, qualities synonymous with Amla well throughout his entire career.

Punjab would go on to lose the match, but Amla won his first IPL Man of the Match Award with that knock.

The knock helped solidify his position as an opener for Punjab; he made his debut playing at one down, as both he and the player he replaced, Shaun was retained for the 2017 season (the opposite ending for the Gayle-Dirk Nannes story if you will).

It took only Punjab’s second match for Amla to begin what would be a scintillating season for him individually, against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The RCB attack was bolstered by the likes of Billy Stanlake, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shane Watson (his last year before he gave up bowling), and millionaire Tymal Mills.

And Amla took down all of them.

Whether it was 140+ thunderbolts from Stanlake, Mills looking to induce a false shot with the short ones, or Chahal trying to one-up him with googlies, Amla responded in kind, by lofting it over extra cover or straight over long-off and long-on or using the pace to go over the keeper and clear the boundary.

Amla finished not out on 58 off 36 deliveries at a strike rate of 152.63, as he helped Punjab comfortably chase down a total of 149 with 8 wickets to spare and just under 6 overs to go.

His next innings of note came in the form of both his maiden IPL and T20 century against the Mumbai Indians at Indore, which was one of Punjab's home venues that season, poetically opening with Shaun.

In ode of Harsha Bhogle, it was an inning that made the hero of Mumbai’s IPL8 campaign Mitchell McClenaghan and the all-time leading IPL wicket-taker at the time Lasith Malinga look like ordinary bowlers in the park.

From picking all of Malinga’s slower ones, and even once for a six that nearly went out of the ground and ending up in flamboyant poses against McClenaghan in the process of repeating the same doses, it was an inning that said it all: as Simon Doull put it before the beginning of his SRH knock, he was indeed the man with the unmistakable beard.

And he could unmistakably do anything, including smash two of the best and most in-demand T20 bowlers at the time continuously to score 104* off 60 at a strike rate of 173.33 to score both his first IPL and T20 century, and score over half of the team’s runs.

Furthermore, nearly half of Amla’s runs came off Malinga alone: 51 runs off 16 deliveries at a mammoth strike rate of 318.8, composed of 4 fours and 5 sixes!

Punjab went on to lose the match, but it doesn’t take away from just how much that inning was filled with strokeplay that even the cricket purist would be in awe of.

The century was followed with another Amla special that season, against the Gujarat Lions.

The knock included taking down Andrew Tye, who became the first bowler to take a hattrick on IPL debut that season and briefly became a hot commodity in T20s with his knuckleball variation, all over the park in the final over of the powerplay for 14 runs and lofting Ravindra Jadeja over extra cover for a six and four.

Amla scored 65 off 40 at a strike rate of 162.50 as Punjab went on to win by 26 runs and Amla his second Man of the Match award.

Amla’s last innings of note would be the last of a couple of things: his last-ever IPL outing and last-ever T20 ton.

His second and last ever IPL and T20 century came at Punjab’s other home venue, the IS Bindra Stadium at Mohali against Gujarat.

Just like his first ton, Amla scored 104 runs off 60 deliveries at a strike rate of 173.33 but would end up being dismissed on the penultimate ball on this occasion. And ironically just like his previous knock against Gujarat, he took down another Australian in the final over of the powerplay, this time James Faulkner.

There was no dominance on one particular side of the wicket, he was scoring it all over with those three words present in all his shots: timing, finesse, and class.

But just like his first ton, this ton too ended up in a losing cause.

Amla wouldn’t feature in Punjab’s final three fixtures as he had to fly back home for an ODI series against England, but it also turned out to be curtains for good on his IPL career, as he would, unfortunately, go unsold in the next 2 auctions.

Coincidentally enough, the 2017 season also marked the end of Shaun's time with Punjab and the IPL altogether, as he too hasn’t been bought in an auction since.

Amla was the only batsman to have scored more than one century that season, responsible for 2 of the 5 centuries. He would also join an elite list of players to have scored more than one IPL century in a season: Shane Watson, Gayle, Jos Buttler (who actually joined the club last season), and Kohli.

And all these 4 (arguably) have one thing in common: they are all revered as IPL greats.

Amla’s numbers in 2017 read as 420 runs averaging 60 odd with a strike rate of 145.83 and were the sixth-highest run-scorer overall that season.

His aggregate IPL numbers read as 577 runs at an average of 44.38 striking at 141.77.

It does open the room for debate if Amla could have further solidified his T20 stature and moreover, his IPL stature had he been able to play the following two seasons, but it would more or less be grasping at straws, extrapolating from recent numbers at the time of the auction, taking away from the masterclass Amla put that season that is once again, barely ever talked about.

Amla has already begun his post-playing career transition, currently the batting coach of the MI Cape Town in the ongoing SA20. And even before that, he was the batting mentor of the Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, in the county off-season.

This certainly makes one (or at least me) ponder just how much could Punjab could benefit from the great’s batting expertise in a coaching setup. Perhaps if KL Rahul were still around the Punjab camp, Amla could guide him on how to look classy while striking at 140+ all season long consistently, and bid adieu to the conservative mindset he has adopted altogether.

You’ve likely seen my tweet of how Punjab could perhaps do with appointing another one of their underappreciated overseas players from over the years, former skipper George Bailey as Director of Cricket (like Mike Hesson is for RCB). But just like that, even this preposition is wishful thinking.

So what’s an unmistakable takeaway from this tribute? That the man from Durban with the unmistakable beard can indeed do it all; no mistake. If you thought he couldn’t ever strike at over 140+ in a T20 inning, you are indeed mistaken. And he’ll do so while looking elegant with his long and wise beard, making your favorite T20 bowler and the best in the business look like just an ordinary bowler in the park, with pure timing, finesse, and class.