Amla the Wanderer returns to form

There was only one man who wanted Hashim Amla to find form more than he did: JP Duminy. With tea approaching and Amla on 49, Duminy sprinted a single off the second ball of the over to put Amla on strike and was then determined to do whatever it took to run the single that would take him to fifty. Amla defended the next ball and Duminy was halfway down the pitch, but the run wasn't on; Amla defended the ball after that, and Duminy made it almost two-thirds of the way before he was sent back. Luckily Duminy's efforts were not in vain. Amla pushed the penultimate ball before the break into a gap and reached his first fifty in 11 innings.

Perhaps there were 11 other men who wanted Amla to find form more than he did too: Sri Lanka. Although they tested him early on when there was a some nip and Angelo Mathews struck him on the hand, they did not continue to make things particularly difficult for him. They even let him off. Amla was on 5 when he drove to the gully where Dhananjaya de Silva was stationed. It was a low chance but a chance that should have been taken, especially given Amla's record of punishing sides that put him down.

Actually, there were 5559 people who wanted Amla to find form more than he did. Those who turned up at the Wanderers in the first back-to-work, back-to-school week of the new year knew they were witnessing something special. They made enough noise for the 27500 other people the stadium can hold, enough maybe for the whole of Johannesburg. It was here that Amla scored an unbeaten 176 against New Zealand a decade ago - after being dropped by Brendon McCullum on 2 - and it is here that he has found himself again, after a lean run that has stretched back a year and 13 innings.

In that time, Amla has gone from hitting the ball sweetly (albeit briefly) to looking completely out of sorts, with questions over his footwork and his frame of mind. The one doing the rounds most was whether limited-overs' cricket, particularly T20 cricket, which Amla has been playing a lot more of since signing deals at the IPL and CPL, had taught him bad habits and made him impatient. In this innings, he answered that and the answer is no.

Amla bided his time better, defended more resolutely and left more discerningly, but he also had more luck - the luck Dale Steyn spoke about. "If he is going to nick it, he needs it to go through the slips and for four to get the ball rolling," Steyn told ESPNcricinfo.

That almost happened when Amla drove loosely at a Suranga Lakmal delivery just before lunch and got a thick edge that went through his legs. Another edge, when he reached for a Mathews delivery, rolled along the carpet. A third - a leading edge, also off Mathews - fell into empty space in the covers.

Through all that, Duminy - who fell 12 short of a career-best, but will remain an afterthought because of the attention on Amla - played an instrumental role in taking pressure off his team-mate. Duminy took most of the strike and played with such fluency, it was difficult to believe he has spent most of the last year playing for his place. Duminy's footwork, even against spin, his clean hitting and the confidence he exuded meant that Amla could take his time, and he did.

Amla faced 109 balls and spent two hours and 45 minutes fighting to get to fifty. It was tortured and tough but it was what he needed to remind himself what it felt like to be in Test form. And when he remembered, he remembered properly.

The wrists were back and so was the flick through the leg side; the high-elbow off the back foot was back, and so was the drive. Amla's second fifty came off 60 balls and in almost half the time as his first - in an hour and 19 minutes. It came with more assured shot-selection, against a Sri Lankan attack who were flagging in energy and ideas.

For that reason, this may not go down among the great team innings in terms of a contest, but it will be celebrated for the individual efforts. Both Amla and Duminy had been battling other things throughout this series, most notably themselves. They threatened to win that fight on the first day in Port Elizabeth. where they shared in a partnership that suggested they were both on the brink of something, but neither of them converted their starts. That ended up being a precursor to what they won today.

In Duminy's case, it is a small victory for his ability to be consistent, given more opportunity and responsibility at No.4. He now has two hundreds in two series, and two fifties in the same series for the first time since his debut in 2008. In Amla's case, it was about overcoming an occasion of which he thought too much was being made - his 100th Test. He turned down a felicitation dinner and asked not to address the media beforehand because he wanted it to be just another game. In the end, it's not. It's the game in which he did what everyone wanted for him, and found a return to form.