Stats Preview: India vs South Africa

By Dileep V

 

India has never beaten South Africa in World Cup. South Africa won the match by six wickets the first time they met in the 1992 World Cup and repeated it in the 1999 World Cup by winning it by four wickets. India have a slight upperhand against South Africa since the 2007 World Cup. They have met each other 11 times, with India winning six times to South Africa’s five.

By Dileep V

India meets South Africa in a marquee clash on Saturday at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur. India have already qualified for the quarter-finals, whereas South Africa look to seal it in this match.

 

Head to head

India has never beaten South Africa in World Cup. South Africa won the match by six wickets the first time they met in the 1992 World Cup and repeated it in the 1999 World Cup by winning it by four wickets. India have a slight upperhand against South Africa since the 2007 World Cup. They have met each other 11 times, with India winning six times to South Africa’s five.

 

Â	Matches	India wins	SA wins	No Result
Overall	      65	    24	   39	       2
In India	      22	    13	    9	       0
In World Cup	       2	     0	    2	       0

 

 

Indian batsmen have an upperhand

 

The last time Sachin Tendulkar played an ODI game in India against the South Africa, he went on to make a mammoth 200 not out. It is no surprise that he is still lethal and a big threat to South Africa. Barring Virat Kohli, who has played just seven innings, none of the present Indian players have an average above 40 against the Proteas. Apart from Tendulkar – Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan are the only players to register a century against them.

 

Indian batsmen vs South Africa

Player	Inns	Runs	Avg	SR	HS	100s/50s
S Tendulkar	56	1890	34.36	74.97	200*	4/8
Yuvraj Singh	20	598	37.37	77.46	103	1/4
V Sehwag	17	424	26.50	94.64	77*	0/2
MS Dhoni	17	374	24.93	85.58	68*	0/2
V Kohli	7	281	46.83	78.05	87*	0/3
Y Pathan	6	225	37.50	134.73	105	1/1

 

 

Jacques Kallis thrives playing against India and so does Hashim Amla in the limited number of games he has played against them.

 

South Africa batsmen vs India

Player	Inns	Runs	Avg	SR	HS	100s/50s
J Kallis	31	1446	65.72	72.08	119*	2/10
AB de Villiers	17	580	41.42	99.31	114*	2/2
G Smith	16	452	30.13	81.73	134*	1/2
H Amla	7	371	61.83	95.37	116*	1/3
J Duminy	9	295	36.87	82.17	73	0/3

 

 

Harbhajan Singh leads the chart with 22 wickets, but it has come at above 30 per wicket, while Zaheer Khan has a decent record against South Africa picking up 21 wickets at 27.19

 

Tendulkar is the only player in the present team to have  four wicket haul against South Africa. He has 17 wickets against them but at a high average of 60.58, whereas Virender Sehwag has 13 wickets at an average of 22.15

 

Zaheer has dismissed Graeme Smith five times in 13 matches, including twice before he had opened his account.

 

Zaheer Khan vs Graeme Smith

M	Runs	Dismissal	Avg	M/Dismissal	0s
13	  12	      5	2.40	      2.6	2

 

Pace spearheads Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have a good record against the India. They have 12 wickets each, but Morkel has the better average, economy and strike rate of the two. Kallis has 29 wickets at 36.55

 

The VCA ground at Nagpur has hosted 14 matches, including two World Cup games. India has a 6-6 win-loss and has an average score of 297, here compared to the overall average of 285 at this ground. During the last 10 years, the average score at this ground has risen to 315.

 

South Africa has won the lone match played against India at this venue in a match which saw over 600 runs scored. South Africa won by a slender margin of 10 runs and the Nagpur crowd can expect a high scoring close encounter.

 

This is the first time a match is played under floodlights at this ground. Of the 14 matches played here, nine times team batting first have gone on to win the match while five times a team has successfully chased a target. So win the toss and bat is the mantra on this ground.

 

 

 

(Dileep.V is a Scouser fan, Sports freak, Movie buff, Laggard Quizzer and dreams of setting foot on Anfield one day)    

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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