The Pink record of the Proteas
Pink Day is a special day for South Africa; a day which is used to spread awareness of breast cancer among the people and collect money for the Breast Cancer Clinics. The legendary batsman AB de Villiers, who is a staunch supporter of the movement, said, "We realize the importance of highlighting awareness around breast cancer and for us to lay in pink is our way of contributing to the campaign’’.
South Africa have so far played 6 matches wearing the pink jersey and have won all of them.
South African cricket team first wore the Pink jersey in March 2013 in an ODI match aginst Pakistan. Hashim Amla (122 off 113) and AB De Villiers (128 off 108) scored centuries which helped South Africa post a mammoth target of 344 in front of Pakistan which they failed to cover.
The second encounter was against India in December 2013, where Quinton De Kock scored a magnificent 135 off 121 balls and De Villiers supported with a quick fire 77 off 47 balls, which lead them to 358, whereas India fell all out for 217, thanks to a fiery spell of 25/3 by Dale Steyn.
In January 2015, West Indies were at the receiver’s end to one of the greatest exhibitions of master class from AB De Villiers, Amla and Rilee Rossouw. After the record opening stand between Hashim Amla (153*) and Rossouw (128) ended, the crowd witnessed one of the greatest limited overs innings that the world has ever seen. ABD smashed a world record 31 ball 100 and ended up his innings with 149 from 44 ball, which included 16 humongous sixes!
During February 2016, England set a target of 263, on the likes of a ton by Joe Root. When the top order couldn’t help them, it was Chris Morris who lead the South Africans to a nail-biting one wicket win, with his 38 ball 62.
The fifth encounter was against SriLanka where Dwaine Pretorius went over them like a lightning, scalping 3 wickets for 19 runs. Chasing a meagre target of 164, ABD again made them cross the shores with an unbeaten 60.
The last time they played in pink was against India in February 2018, where India scored 289 in 50 overs, with the help of a fine century by Shikhar Dhawan. The target was revised due to the interruption of rain and Heinrich Klassen with a 27 ball 43 made sure that South Africa remain victorious in their pink jersey.