After five failures, South Africa finally conquered India in India, winning their maiden One-day International (ODI) series on the Indian soil. It was India’s first bilateral ODI series defeat at home since 2012-13 when Pakistan beat them by 2-1.
It was South Africa’s third successive bilateral series win for the first time against India in ODIs: they won 3-2 in South Africa in 2010-11 and 2-0 in South Africa in 2013-14.
South African opener Quinton de Kock’s flying starts and De Villiers’ assaulting finishes were the most important factors for the Proteas’ series win.
The South African skipper De Villiers scored three centuries in the five-match series. This is the most by any player in a bilateral series in India.
Quinton de Kock recorded his fifth hundred in nine innings against India to create a record by any batsman for hitting five hundreds in just nine innings against any team, surpassing the 18 innings taken by Salman Butt to post five centuries against India.
Seven batsmen have registered five or more hundreds against any one country: Sanath Jayasuriya (7), Ricky Ponting (6), Kumar Sangakkara (6), de Villiers (6), Salman Butt (5), Nathan Astle (5) and de Kock (5). Interestingly they all did so against India.
India’s ODI skipper MS Dhoni hasn’t been at his best as India have failed to pull off a single series win in 2015 under Dhoni.
India’s only series victory came against Zimbabwe under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane.
India lost in the tri-series in Australia in January; they were eliminated in the semi-finals of the World Cup 2015; lost a bilateral series against Bangladesh for the first time and lost both the Twenty20 and the ODI series against South Africa.
According to Mohinder Amarnath, a former India selector and a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, "South Africa series loss could signal the end of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy era. Dhoni is a defensive captain who allows opposition to make a comeback in the game. His record is good at home pitches only like any other Indian captain. There is nothing special about it. We need aggressive captains. It is time for Virat Kohli to lead in all formats of the game."
Former India great Sunil Gavaskar also criticised Dhoni for being stringent with his bowling changes during the fifth One-day International against South Africa.
Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, the master-finishers failed in the series after Rohit Sharma provided a decent platform in most matches. Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina were also among the big flops in this series.
Indian ace spinner Ashwin’s absence hurt India. He was bowling well in the first ODI in Kanpur when a side strain forced him to leave the field. India lost the game by just five runs.
South African skipper AB de Villiers himself pointed out after the series that Ashwin’s loss had left a gaping hole in the Indian attack. "India did miss Ashwin in the later part of the series. He is a champion bowler," he said.
The final ODI at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai was expected to provide a thrilling climax, but South Africa, riding on Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and captain A B de Villiers centuries, posted a record-high total of 438-4 and slaughtered India by a record 214 runs.
This was only the second time when three batsmen of a team scored centuries in an ODI match.
It was the joint third highest-ever and 17th 400-plus score in ODI history.
It was also the highest ODI score in India, surpassing 418-5 that India scored against West Indies in Indore in 2011.
South Africa became the first team to register six totals of 400 or more in ODIs, surpassing five by India.
Australia and Sri Lanka have done so twice. England and New Zealand have done this once.
South Africa’s 214-run win in the final ODI was their biggest win over India in terms of runs.
India’s loss to South Africa by 214 runs was their second biggest in terms of runs in ODIs, next only to the 245-run defeat to Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 2000.
South African batsman Hashim Amla was not in a great form in the ODI series but during the series he completed 6,000 ODI runs in 123 innings and became the fastest to achieve this milestone, surpassing the 136 innings played by Virat Kohli.
Amla is also the quickest to complete 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000 runs in ODIs.
South African captain AB de Villiers was the most successful batsman of the ODI series with 358 runs, averaging 89.50.
For hosts India, Rohit Sharma was the highest run-getter with 255 runs at an average of 51 with one hundred.
South Africa’s young fast bowler Kagiso Rabada and Dayle Steyn took 10 wickets each.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the most successful bowler for India with 7 scalps. Bhuvneshwar also collected the unwanted record of giving away the most runs (106) in a match by any Indian bowler in ODI history.
Having won the T20 series (2-0) and ODI series (3-2), South Africa will go into the Test series, starting from Nov 5, with much more confidence.