 South African tours to India: A brief history
24th Mar 2008 23:04 IST
Manish Kumar
South Africa's third Test tour of India in 2004-05 was almost a non-starter, as the visitors threatened to pull out if they failed to get any assurances that Herschelle Gibbs and Boje will not be prosecuted by the Indian police in the match-fixing scandal. However, both players pulled out and the tour went ahead as scheduled.
The first Test at Kanpur ended in a dull draw, with Andrew Hall frustrating India with 163. But India took the second Test and the series in Kolkata, with Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh sharing all the second innings wickets.
A year later in 2005-06, South Africa returned for a five-match one-day series to fulfill their obligations from the previous visit and the stage was set perfectly for a high-voltage clash with South Africa undefeated in 19 matches, and a resurgent India with a 6-1 victory against Sri Lanka behind them.
South Africa drew first blood in Hyderabad, as India - barring Yuvraj Singh who scored an incredible century - stumbled on a seaming pitch. The pitch dictated the result of the second match as India pulled things back comprehensively on a slow turner in Bangalore.
With rain washing out the third ODI in Chennai, protests in Kolkata following Ganguly's exclusion and Greg Chappell's alleged 'finger gesture' to the protestors took the sheen out of the fourth one-dayer, and Graeme Smith helped South Africa blaze to a ten-wicket win on another seaming track.
With only two possible outcomes, India squared the series in the fifth match in Mumbai, as captain Rahul Dravid steered India home in a pulsating contest between bat and ball ending the series 2-2. |
