• At his delayed outset in 2008, you might not have put money too readily on Hashim Amla enriching the ODI arena.
• Instead he developed into a South African (and broader) giant of condensed cricket, with bag-loads of major records.
• That he beat Viv Richards and Virat Kohli to key statistical milestones simply underlined his one-day mastery.

Durability, concentration and stamina: Those qualities will always hugely aid any batsman's quest to enter the territory of Test legend.

Hashim Amla had all of them, which ensured that for much of his 124-Test career (2004-2019) he certainly belonged, on the grounds of inarguable performances and statistics, in that category.

Perhaps the ultimate proof of those attributes is that the now 37-year-old - celebrated among team-mates as "the guy who just doesn't sweat" - remains South Africa's only triple-centurion, following that unforgettable 311 not out against England in the warm sunshine at The Oval in July 2012.

Reflecting on his extended contribution to the country's cause in the longest and most prestigious format, it is only really the "bookends" of his career - yes, on each side - that robbed him of a final average significantly closer to Jacques Kallis' sublime 55.37.

It's the pages between the covers, the riotous success of his heyday years, that provided the richness in legacy for Hashim Mohamed Amla.

He was a slow starter in Tests (though so was Kallis, his long-time partner in international run-gluttony) and then petered out quite profoundly in his twilight phase, leaving him on a still highly impressive but not truly extraordinary 46.64 when it was all over for him in early 2019.

But at the very outset of his one-day international career, what chance would you have given Amla of, eventually, ending his Proteas days with a significantly better average in that landscape (49.46) than the five-day one, plus many more appearances in it (181)?

I know I probably wouldn't have backed that scenario.

Now that he has gone from the highest levels, I have been coaxed more and more into realising just what an extraordinary, heavyweight factor he was in what I had long assumed would be much more his secondary arena.

An early recollection of a still-teenaged Amla was of a key age-group coach/mentor, the late, old-school master brain Hylton Ackerman, constantly enthusing over what he had already identified (quite passionately) as a bright road ahead for the player in the first-class and, by extension, Test landscape ... far more so than in condensed formats.

That observation is possibly borne out by how much longer it took for Amla to be recognised for ODI duty. Whereas he had debuted for Test purposes at age 21, against India in Kolkata, his ODI first crack would only come some three and a half years onward, in Bangladesh (March 2008, a couple of weeks short of his 25th birthday).

It was as a No 3 batsman, behind captain Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs, and he was only required to help put the cherry on top, with nine not out, of a nine-wicket thrashing following an opening stand of 143 between the Cape Town-based pair.

Of his entire 178 innings in ODIs, that was one of only three to have ever been outside an opening spot himself, indicating just how potent he became at getting SA off to rollicking starts against the white ball when at its hardest, and with the field largely "up".

The jury was out for a few games - one half-century in his first eight knocks - about his suitability to the more urgent requirements of limited-overs internationals.

But then it all began to change.

I had the pleasure of being a witness to his maiden ton ... on an unappealingly chilly, bleak and blustery Sunday at Benoni's Willowmoore Park ground, where aesthetic charm strictly lies in the eyes of any beholders.

Bangladesh were again the foes, less than top-tier but already beginning to push just a little closer toward that status, and Amla shared first-wicket duty with Smith as the Proteas gleefully accepted the Tigers' invitation to take strike.

Big mistake: What unfolded was an exhibition of a certain brutality to his play - seldom to dissipate subsequently - to accompany Amla's strength in certain textbook strokes.

He lashed 140 off 135 balls, at a strike rate of 103, as South Africa amassed 358 for four to warm the diehard souls attending - more than enough, in an eventually 128-run triumph.

"They might be excused for altering his name locally to 'Bash 'em Amla'," I had written for Sport24 soon afterwards from the pokey press-box.

"The beautiful flexibility of his wrists in whipping the ball square of the wicket was once again in routine evidence, but he is also fast becoming a good old-fashioned bludgeoner when the situation warrants it - he hit a few long balls way over 'cow corner' that would have made the late Hansie Cronje proud."

Three further ODIs onward, Amla's rise as a 50-overs dangerman was confirmed as he registered successive scores of 80 not out (Adelaide) and then 97 (Perth) in the space of four days against the might of Australia in their often-hostile backyards.

He would seldom look back, really, for a further, hugely prosperous decade in the ODI environment.

Amla notched 27 centuries - no compatriot has made more - which meant one came along for him every 6.59 innings of his ODI career.

The cruelty of the fact that his average for runs had just dipped below the 50-mark (very undeservedly, for someone who had flown above that figure for so long) by the time he called it quits, was aggravated by the presence of only one ton in his last 24 knocks.

But he was an indisputable dominator in the environment for great chunks of his career, as evidenced by his strike rate (88.39) being bettered by only one player - AB de Villiers, 101.27 - among the top eight weightiest ODI scorers for SA in history.

The figures that stand out easily the most glowingly, for me, are the ones related to landmark numbers along the route to his total tally of runs.

He comes in at 13th, which in itself is hardly shabby, among international batsmen for being fastest to 1 000 runs in the format (the current leader is Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman).

But it is with reference to the next few landmarks on that scale, and more specifically all of the next six, where things get interesting - and say so extraordinarily much about Amla's extended peak in the 50-overs game.

The lean right-hander occupies the giddying, top berth for all of the 2 000, 3 000, 4 000, 5 000, 6 000 and 7 000 runs milestones.

If you were to equate it to the Test environment, you would be branding that barrage of statistical achievements as positively Bradman-like for "greed" of supremacy.

It was so nearly the "8 000" statistic, too: He was pipped by a whisker (175 innings, to his 176) by Indian current maestro of the crease, Virat Kohli.

If it was even necessary to confirm the quality of those multiple achievements, just take a look at the various runners-up - in the 2 000 category, it is Pakistani legend Zaheer Abbas; for 3 000, the West Indies' emerging Shai Hope.

It then gets even more blue-chip. Next best to Amla for both the 4 000 and 5 000 landmarks? The legendary "Master Blaster", Sir Vivian Richards.

Silver medallist for 6 000 and 7 000? Ongoing subcontinent megastar Kohli.

For additional proof that Amla was a rocket-launcher extraordinaire for South African ODI innings, he has a hand in the South African record partnerships for all of the first, second and third wickets: 282 with Quinton de Kock (first), 247 with Faf du Plessis (second) and 247 again with Rilee Rossouw (third).

He is also involved in six of the top eight partnerships by the country for any wicket.

These are all quite superlative laurels to hold.

Amla developing into a distinguished figure in Test cricket didn't hugely surprise me, once he had bedded down there.

Becoming an ODI giant? Well, it did, a bit.

Only proving just how wide of the mark you can be ...

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing