Amla survives Wanderers 'minefield' with nifty engineering

At the end of the first innings at the Wanderers, a remarkable statistic popped up. Of the 60 wickets to fall in the series between South Africa and India, 34 had involved catches by the wicketkeeper - the most in a series of three or fewer Tests. With 19 wickets still up for grabs, that number may still swell, and it also does not include the number of catches taken in the slips. Clearly the ball has been moving.

Nine of those 34 have come at the Wanderers, where the ball has done more than just move. It has swung and seamed, leapt up and struck the batsmen on the gloves or body and also kept low. Despite an even covering of green, which generally holds a pitch together, it somehow developed cracks after a single day.

Faf du Plessis has said that South Africa were not asking for anything "extreme" in the pitches - a term that he believes can be applied to what they encountered in India in 2015. When he shouldered arms and was bowled by a delivery that started a good foot outside the off-stump, there must have been so many Indians willing to offer a penny for his thoughts that an IPL contract worth of pennies was up for grabs.

The pitch debate is thorny, emotive and often subjective. It also tends to divide along national allegiances, but that was not necessarily the case on Thursday when Cricket South Africa's official match report described the pitch as a "minefield" and went on to say that "batting on this surface has remained an absolute lottery". Which would seem to leave little wriggle room for an appeal should the ICC cast an unfavourable glance towards the Wanderers.

Then again, there was a South African batsman who was able to reduce the odds well below even the most generous lotteries. As others