Batsmen who have faced most balls to score 25 or less runs in a Test innings

Batsmen who have faced most balls to score 25 or less runs in a Test innings: India declared their second innings 30 minutes before lunch at the score of 267/5, after Ajinkya Rahane tucked an Imran Tahir for a single to reach his century, setting a target of 481 for South Africa with just over five sessions remaining in the match. It was the 5th highest target set by India in Tests. This mountainous target was a real challenge for the South Africans, but the bigger challenge for them was to survive the day convincingly. But, under-fire Proteas captain Hashim Amla was ready for this challenge.

At lunch on day five, Proteas have only lost three wickets after consuming 107 overs while the scored board reads 94. But, it hardly mattered to them. The most important point was that they survived three straight sessions losing just one wicket, that of Amla. It was an unyielding day for South Africa, but why would they mind, as time was more important for them than scoring runs.

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Captain Hashim Amla was defiant yesterday but fell to a beauty bowled by Jadeja, which took his off-stump. He was at the forefront with support from Tembu Bavuma and AB de Villiers later on. Amla played the slowest innings of 200 balls or more in the history of Test cricket. It took him 244 balls to score an unbeaten 25 runs which he scored at a strike rate of 10.24. At stumps day 4, Amla and AB de Villiers (11 off 91 balls) were at the crease. Their third-wicket partnership was worth 23 runs off 29.2 overs. The Amla-AB partnership lasted for 42.1 overs. Before that, Amla and Temba Bavuma had put on 44 runs in 38.4 overs.

Saleem Altaf at the second position is far behind in terms of deliveries faced. He made 22 runs off 161 balls versus England in 1971 in Leeds at a strike rate of 13.66.

Here is the list of Batsmen who have faced most balls to score 25 or less runs in a Test innings: