Usman Khawaja scintillating stroke play might have been
compared with great Brian Lara last year but his disciplinary century took a
leaf out Sachin Tendulkar memorable double hundred against Australia at the SCG in
2004.
Tendulkar in that innings, shelved the cover drive off the
fast bowlers for the duration of innings, similarly Khawaja resisted at playing
anything through the off-side throughout Day two of the South African pace trio
of Rabada, Abbott and Philander.
To state the fact, Khawaja only five out of his 135 runs on
the off-side from tourists quicks. Those five runs were courtesy of couple of
defensive pushes and one drive off the front foot from nearly a Yorker length ball
from Philander.
It was innings of mind over manner, stubbornness and consciousness.
It was pre-planned and perfectly executed. It was masterful Test match batting
with the highest level of mental application.
Khawaja had been caught in the cordon in his two previous
innings so he choose to not to dangle his bat or attempt to score through the
off-side.
The strategy worked as he made the South Africa bowl into
his hips and his pads. There lengths became shorter and it allowed him to work
the ball with his majestic wrists through the on-side. In fact while he was
patient outside off-stump he was ruthless on anything that was at his body as
he conjured up 71 runs through the leg-side.
In his innings there was also a sense of game awareness as
he changed gears at the right time. After having reached 18 in 76 balls, the South
African bowlers started to bowl in his zone and he capitalised by scoring 33 in
his next 39 balls to reach in half-century.
Soon, he had lost his skipper to terrible mix-up but he didn’t
go into his shell as he felt it was right time to cash in as Faf Du Plessis
decided to bowl Shamsi for an extended spell from 56th to the 66th
over. In that time space, Khawaja went
to his 100, going from 70 to 100 in space of 27 balls.
Test cricket is all about sieging the right moment to attack
and Khawaja knew it was period he had to bat with freedom. As the South African took the new ball he
went back into shell, protected his stumps, shelved the flowing drives and
accumulated through the leg-side.
Add to it all, he remained unbeaten at stumps on 138 with
still a healthy strike rate of 48, not bad for a guy who barely scored a run on
the off-side from the three South African men.
