India vs South Africa - The ODI rivalry in numbers
India and South Africa are expected to put up a great fight in the upcoming seriesThe India-South Africa rivalry spans more than two decades. There have been some terrific encounters that have engraved their place in the hearts of many fans around the world. Be it Sachin’s superman innings in Gwalior or Dale Steyn’s fiery spell at Nagpur, matches between the two nations have always produced some fine moments that have glorified cricket even further.Despite South Africa’s superiority in both the batting and bowling departments over India in the last 24 years, they don’t have an ICC trophy to boast off. On the other hand, the Men in Blue have won both the T20 and the 50-over World Cup, once each, in that time frame.Statistics, as the saying goes, are like mini-skirts – they reveal a lot, but hide the most important things. However, we all love the numbers game and as South Africa and India are set to lock horns, we look at the numbers that have defined 24 years’ worth of history.
#1 Head-to-head
The nadir of all things to begin with. Cricket is a team sport and, hence, how they fared up against each other as a unit will be our first priority. In this regard, India are far behind the Proteas as in the 71 matches between them, the latter has come out on top in 42 of them compared to India’s 26. Out of the 71 matches, 23 were in India, 28 on South African soil and 20 on neutral venues.
Of the matches played in India, the home team has won 13 and the away team 10 times. In South African, the record is a whopping 21-5 in favour of the home team with 2 games failing to produce a result.
Finally, on neutral venues, the South Africans once again have the upper hand as they have won 11 and India just 8 in the aforementioned amount of games that they played against each other.