SA Vs IND: Winning a Test series in South Africa is still a dream for the Men in Blue. Rohit Sharma and his men have lost another opportunity of winning a red ball series when they had lost the 1st match of the two-match series of the longer version of the game.
The visitors lost the opening Test match of this Test series by an innings and 32 runs. Now they will have to play out of their skins to level the series to one all in Cape Town.
At Newlands, the Blues are yet to win a red ball match against the home side. The 2nd and the last match of this series will start from tomorrow 3rd January 2024 to 7th January 2024.
The batting has been a major issue for Team India whenever they have travelled overseas. But in South Africa, the performance has gone down even more.
India managed to just 245 runs in the 1st innings and 131 runs in the second innings. KL Rahul scored a magnificent ton in the 1st innings and Virat Kohli scored 76 runs in the second innings of the 1st match at Centurion.
However, some Indian batters have scored a ton in the challenging conditions of South Africa in a format like Test Cricket. Sachin Tendulkar has scored 5 centuries in the Proteas Nation which is the most by any Indian batter. The God of Cricket has even scored the most runs in South Africa.
Today we will make a list of all those Indian batters who have scored a Test Ton in the Proteas Nation -
The God of Cricket had scored five tons in the red ball format which is still the most by any Indian batter in the Proteas Nation.
111 Runs in Johannesburg in 1992
169 Runs in Cape Town in 1997
155 Runs in Bloemfontein in 2001
111 unbeaten runs in Centurion in 2010
146 Runs in Cape Town in 2011.
King Kohli has scored 2 Test tons in South Africa so far. In 2013, Virat smashed 119 runs in Johannesburg and 153 run knock came in 2018 in Centurion. The King is the second Indian after Tendulkar to score more than one ton in the Proteas Nation.
The Karnataka batter is the latest entrant in this list. He is the second wicket-keeper batter to smash a ton in South Africa and also the third Indian batsmen who has scored more than one ton in the Proteas nation.
Before he scored 101 runs in the Centurion Test match, KL has also scored 129 runs at that same venue as an opening batter during the tour of 2021/2022.
Here are The Indian Batsmen Who Have Scored Just One Test Century in South Africa in their careers of Red Ball Format -
Cheteshwar Pujara – 1 Test Century in South Africa. Pujara scored 153 in Johannesburg in 2013.
Rahul Dravid – 1 Test Ton in 1997 at Johannesburg. The Current Indian Head Coach played a fine knock of 148 runs.
Kapil Dev – India’s 1983 World Winning skipper and the finest pace bowling all-rounder had scored his only ton in South Africa during 1992 series. He smashed 129 runs at Port Elizabeth.
Wasim Jaffer – The former Indian opening batsman scored 116 runs in Cape Town during India’s 2006/2007 tour.
Virender Sehwag - Viru Paaji scored 105 runs in Bloemfontein when he batted in the middle order in 2001 tour.
Mohammad Azharuddin – The Indian skipper scored 115 runs in 1992 at Cape Town, which is his only ton in the Proteas Nation.
Pravin Amre – Amre ji’s only ton in South Africa came when he had scored 103 runs in 1992 at Durban.
Rishabh Pant – The first Indian wicket-keeper who scored a ton in South Africa was Rishabh Pant. He scored unbeaten 100 runs in Cape Town in 2022 which was his only Test century in Proteas nation as well.
