No selfishness in blocking, says Hashim Amla

South Africa had batted for 148 overs to secure a famous draw against Australia in 2012-13, and Hashim Amla’s men threatened to wage a similar battle in their fourth and final Test against India here before eventually going down by 337 runs.

Amla said he believed they could pull it off here and defended their stone-walling tactics, saying it was the need of the hour. Excerpts:

On whether another Adelaide could happen: We definitely believed it could. At lunch, we were three down and it was possible. We knew the last session and the last hour was going to be difficult. We tried our best. AB de Villiers did an exceptional job in trying to hold in together for us, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it to as deep as we would have wanted.

On his knock: Nobody wants to block everything. You want to score runs, that’s why you are a batsman. But the need of the time was to try and bat as long as we can and take as many risky shots out of the equation. It was unnatural to block as many full tosses and half volleys as we did. But there is no selfishness involved in trying to do what needs to be done for the team.

On the positives: Our bowling has been exceptional on this tour. It has been a shining light to see Morne Morkel lead the attack in the absence of Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander. He has bowled some of the best spells of fast bowling I have seen in the subcontinent. And then the way Kyle Abbott came in, Kagiso came in and did well and our spinners did the job. I am happy with the way our bowling responded in these conditions.