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NEWS India-South Africa Series 2006>What India gained and lost from the African safari 08th Jan 2007 23.30 IST By Manish Kumar Rahul Dravid and his team lost both the ODI and the Test series on the South African tour. The biggest positive that emerged from the tour was India’s emphatic and historic first-ever Test victory on South African soil that came at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.
Another big positive was the resurgence of Sourav Ganguly , who made a highly impressive return to the Indian Test team by emerging the team's highest run-scorer in the three-Test series against South Africa. India's most successful captain found himself left out in the cold after a high-voltage confrontation with coach Greg Chappell in 2005 and poor form which saw him average just 4.8 runs during his recent county stint in England. Ganguly scored 214 runs in six innings at an average of 42.80 and was third in the overall run chart for the series, which the hosts won 2-1. Ganguly, who was out of the Indian team for around 10 months, was called back to add experience to the side, which lost 0-4 in the preceding one-day series. Among the bowlers, S Sreesanth hogged all the limelight in India’s emphatic and historic first-ever Test victory on South African soil that came at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. With his superb seam-up deliveries, Sreesanth took five wickets as South Africa were bowled out for their lowest score of 84 against India in their first innings. Sreesanth was the most successful with 18 wickets at an average of 21.94. Sreesanth’s wicket tally in the series is the highest by any bowler from the two sides. He is the third Indian after Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath to take 18 wickets in a series against South Africa in South Africa Sreesanth is a rare fast bowling find for India, who has left such an impression abroad so early in his career. Kumble and Zaheer Khan – on his comeback – too impressed. Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Kaarthick put up an opening stand of 153 runs in the third Test in Cape Town, which was the best first-wicket partnership for India against South Africa in South Africa. The previous best was 90 between Vikram Rathore and Nayan Mongia at the Wanderers in 1996-97. But these positives were overshadowed by the poor run of the Indian batsmen – which largely resulted in the series defeats both in the Tests and the ODIs. Dravid scored 125 runs in the Test series, at an average of 20.89. This was his worst performance in a three-Test series after the 1999-2000 tour of Australia, where he aver- aged 15.50. Virender Shewag scored 89 runs in the Test series. He averaged just 14.83 — his worst ever three-Test series. Sehwag’s average dipped to 49.46 at the end of this series. But the biggest worry for India is the prolonged poor form of the Genius. 25.8 was the average with which Sachin Tendulkar has scored 387 runs in his last 10 Tests, with 2 half-centuries. Tendulkar had the second best tally among the Indians and fourth overall in the South African tour. He compiled 199 runs in six innings averaging 33.16 with a highest score of 64. In the third Test in Cape Town, Tendulkar, batting with a torn butt muscle, went into a shell against the debutant left-arm spinner Paul Harris. Such was the domination by Harris of Tendulkar by bowling outside the leg-stump line that it didn’t look like a debutant bowling to a champion batsman – but the other way around – a champion spinner to a debutant batsman. And lastly, India sent Irfan Pathan to rediscover form in domestic cricket and Munaf Patel – from the fastest bowler in India – bowled deliveries that hardly touched 125kmph. Also View In-Depth Coverage: India-South Africa Series 2006 Team Page: India Team Page: South Africa | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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