It is very close between Amla and ABD for the #1 spot. Sangakarra has been a monster as well but most of his success has come on the flat tracks of Sri Lanka, UAE and Bangladesh, hence he falls short. If we give a slight advantage to pace bowlers from the subcontinent, it is only fair that the batsmen from places like South Africa and England get a similar advantage.
Amla has a truly stellar record in test match cricket. He averages 50+ against every team, barring the West Indies and Sri Lanka and only the latter have restricted him from having an average of 45+ against them. He averages nearer to 60 than 50 in Australia and his outstanding averages of 76 in England and 78 in the UAE, both places where some of his contemporaries have fared miserably, only look pitiful when one glances at his Bradman-esque average in India, a mighty 103. His away average is 56 and it is clear that if he didn't play the majority of his games in the African Savannah, his average would be a lot higher. His record proves that there is no type of bowling or any batting condition under which Amla can be tamed.
Nor are these records piled up without a sprinkling of memorable innings every now and then. The finest is arguably, his triple-century, the first by any South African, against the #1 team at that time, England, in their own backyard after the home team had been dismissed for a collective score of
less than 300, in the first innings. The way he kept caressing Anderson and Broad to the cover boundary was magical and his rendering of Graeme Swann useless, brutally effective. That mammoth innings ultimately ended up giving South Africa the edge over their opponents for the rest of the series, especially useful since it came in the very first match of the series and getting his name on the Lord's honors board in the final match of the series by scoring another delightful ton was just the icing on the cake.
From monk-like patience and a wielding of the willow that ingrained in the viewers mind that this man was an artist, let's look at the destructive side of his batting. With time running out and a chance at winning a series in Australia fading, Amla led the charge against the Australian attack in Perth, in the second innings, striking at more than a run-a-ball during the major part of his innings, which yielded 196 runs. The two Mitchells and Nathan Lyon were hit to all parts of the ground as Amla gave the Aussies a gallon of their own aggression and being named MOTM for his efforts.
Let's take a long flight down to Nagpur, India to witness another dimension of Amla's batting. An innings of 253* against an Indian attack that boasted two of their finest bowlers ever, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajjan Singh, is more than many batsmen outside the subcontinent can only dream of. Mind you, many batsmen from the subcontinent have also, only dreamed of amassing as many runs in an innings. Surely the Indian dressing-room, containing figures like Sachin Tendulker, Virender Sehwag and Gautham Gambhir, was doing so when they were bowled out for 233, a full 20 runs short of Amla's score. Seam and Spin alike was slaughtered that day, although Amla made a special point to treat the spinners with utter disdain, totally disrespecting the notion that India is the hardest place for batsmen to tour, for batsmen born outside the subcontinent.
The list of memorable innings by Amla is long but unfortunately, I do not possess this man's calm, desire and unerring determination. So I'll just list a few other worthy innings that came off his bat:
- 118 out of a total team score of 249, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Scored two years ago.
- 139* out of a total team score of 282, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Scored last year and ensured that South Africa would win their first series in Sri Lanka, since before Amla's predecessor was appointed captain.
- 208 against the West Indies, in Centurion, in his latest test match. Looked at ease throughout his innings and hammered the opposition's bowlers into submission.
With his spot-less record combined with an addiction to scoring genuinely great innings, Amla edges out his contemporary and team-mate, AB de Villiers, as the greatest test batsman of this decade and generation.
TL;DR: Amla has a great beard, therefore he da bomb!
.png "Kumar Sangakkara :sanga")
made their debut during 04-06.Sanga was quite ordinary for the first 4-5 years of his career and hit his purple patch around 07-08.
hands down. 
and SA folded up for 282.
