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Kohli, AB have shown there's a variety of different ways to be successful in T20: Hashim Amla

Amla, who himself is no mean an attacking batsman at the top of the order, was a mute spectator when Kohli scored his fourth IPL century last Wednesday in a 15-over match. Amla said that T20 allowed today’s batsmen to try different things and be successful.

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Kings XI Punjab opener Hashim Amla addresses the media at the team hotel in Visakhapatnam on Friday
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South Africa’s Hashim Amla has been enjoying watching AB de Villiers flay the opposition, either from the other end of the batting crease or from the pavilion. But to be at the receiving end, not of AB but of Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli, has been a different experience.

Amla, who himself is no mean an attacking batsman at the top of the order, was a mute spectator when Kohli scored his fourth IPL century last Wednesday in a 15-over match. Amla said that T20 allowed today’s batsmen to try different things and be successful.

Speaking on the eve of his team Kings XI Punjab’s last match of the season against Rising Pune Supergiants here on Friday, Amla said of Kohli’s exploits: “T20 has always been a type of game where various different types of players will succeed as long as they stick to their game plans. The way that Virat has played, he's been very successful. The way Chris Gayle plays, he's also been very successful. AB is almost something of a mixture of the two of them – power-hitting and the way he manipulates the fields. T20 has always allowed that for different players to be successful. When T20 first started, you just have to hit sixes and fours to be successful. But as these players have shown, there's a variety of different ways to be successful and they've been playing beautiful cricket for the last year or so. And that's great for the cricket world – it's entertaining for everybody and also a great advertisement for cricket.”

Click here for the full coverage of the IPL 2016, including commentary, fixtures, scorecards and more.

For someone with a strike rate of 129.06 as an opening batsman in T20, it was surprising that Hashim Amla, who has had tremendous success for South Africa in all the three formats not to be the first choice for any of the IPL franchises. Much like Martin Guptill of New Zealand.

But when Amla finally got a call, albeit as a replacement for the injured Shaun Marsh in the Kings XI Punjab, there was not much that the South African right-handed opener could do to the struggling side. It was a major positive for Amla, who would otherwise been devoid of match-practice for South Africa’s forthcoming international engagements, the imminent one being the tour of the West Indies for a tri-series.

Amla said of his IPL experience: “For me personally, having three weeks here has afforded me getting some cricket before the international season. If I didn't come here, I would have been going to the West Indies without any cricket behind me. So, fortunately these three weeks have been a good start-up pack to the international season and I'm very grateful for that. For me personally, it has been very good and I've enjoyed it.”

Amla did make an impression in his first IPL season, making 96 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mohali last Sunday.

On what he liked about the IPL, the 33-year-old from Durban said: “From a personal point of view, I've really enjoyed coming to the team. Yes, you may have been last in the lot but you’d never have said that with the amount of enthusiasm that everybody showed over the last three weeks that I have been here. So, give credit to the players and everybody that has maintained that type of environment. In every IPL and in every tournament, there are going to be a few teams that suffer losses and unfortunately it's been Kings XI this time. But as I said, credit to the players for keeping up great spirits and trying to maintain optimism when things haven't gone well. So, that's been my impression and I am very pleased to have been involved and had the opportunity of interacting with the Kings XI guys, I've enjoyed it.”

KXIP have had two captains lead the side this season, Murali Vijay taking over the reins from David Miller after results did not go in their favour. Amla has played only under Vijay. He was impressed with the Indian Test opener’s captaincy. “Vijay has been very good. Since I have been here, his is obviously the only captain I've been under. He's been extremely positive and as I said credit to the players, to him and the guys who've kept their optimism when things haven't gone well. So he's been very good.”

Amla, who was South Africa’s Test captain until the start of the year, said that he was focussed on his team’s needs and performances that he did not look at the rest of the IPL teams this season. “I haven't thought much about other team’s performances. We've been more focussed on how Kings XI can do well. Haven't given it much thought but as I said every IPL there will be teams who will succeed and teams who fail. The teams that have done well, like Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Lions, these type of teams have basically just managed to keep the consistency going. Maybe one of our drawbacks has been that we won a game here but lost a game, we win a game and we lose a game. When you find consistency, that's when you end up at the top of the log. So, I think those teams have managed to find it.”

Amla will go home with happy memories rather than the bitter results that KXIP have come out with. The icing on the cake will be to win their last game and finish the tournament with a smile.

Hashim Amla in IPL 2016:

5 matches, 5 innings, 127 runs, 96 highest, 25.40 average, 138.04 strike rate, 1 fifty

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