Watch: Amla goes the other way, invents the ‘Amla scoop’

Hashim Amla scored a 59-ball century to lift Kings XI Punjab to 189/3 in 20 overs against Gujarat Lions at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. This was Amla’s 2nd hundred in this year’s IPL which shows his consistency at the top of the order for Kings XI. Put in to bat first by Suresh Raina, Amla looked in ominous touch post his successive boundaries in the third over off Pradeep Sangwan.

He made sure that the Punjab innings’ run-rate never dropped. Aged 34, the South African has shed the label of being a ‘Test’ player by virtue of some explosive knocks this year. His strike rate of 145.83 and average of 60 in 10 games this year has kept Punjab still in the hunt for the playoffs. Amla’s innings was studded with 5 sixes and 8 boundaries where he scored 104 off 60 balls. His 5th boundary of the innings, which came off Basil Thampi’s bowling in the 17th over, was a subject of discussion.

As Thampi came closer to the bowling crease, Amla shaped up to play the scoop shot over the short fine-leg over. Watching the batsman move, Thampi was quick to adjust his line and bowled wider to not let Amla scoop. It was a game within a game as the right-hander saw the bowler’s ploy and changed his shot immediately.

He went inside the line of the wide yorker and played the reverse scoop which beat the short third-man fielder by 5 yards to rocket into the boundary. It was a work of genius by Amla who displayed his range of shots.

Gaurav Kapur took it to Twitter – as the anchor didn’t know how to describe this brilliant shot by Amla. He asked his fans to describe this shot as it wasn’t an orthodox shot by any stretch of imagination.

Watch the video here:

Can anyone give a name to this shot? What a brilliant knock by Amla #KXIPvGL pic.twitter.com/0cbotnhuc2

— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) May 7, 2017

The best possible way to describe this shot will be to name it as ‘Amla scoop’.