Virat Kohli Hashim Amla
Amla became the fastest to 27 ODI centuries.Getty Images

Hashim Amla broke Virat Kohli's record on January 19 by becoming the quickest to reach 27 ODI centuries but could not escape the wrath of social media and got trolled for what they deemed to be a selfish innings.

Amla achieved his 27th ton in his 167th innings during the first ODI against Pakistan in Port Elizabeth and beat Kohli's mark by just two innings. But Amla's innings did not help his team's cause as he failed to accelerate in the back end of his innings. The opening batsman finished with 108 off 120 balls with a strike rate of 90. While this would be a fantastic innings a decade ago, in the modern game it is deemed unacceptable for a batsman to play the entire 50 overs and not end up with a strike rate of over 100.

Amla did his job well till the 40th over but when the time came to put the foot on the accelerator he failed to capitalise scoring only 28 runs in the last ten overs. South African skipper, Faf Du Plessis echoed the same emotions while also praising the opposition.

"Those two guys [Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez] batted really well but there were probably 15 or 20 more runs that we could have scored if we had pushed a bit harder," said Du Plessis. "Pakistan bowled really well in the middle overs."

Amla's knock saw the South African score his first ODI century in 15 months and although it was in a losing cause, the team will be happy that he has found form ahead of the 2019 cricket World Cup.