India in South Africa: Can Virat Kohli rewrite a gloomy history?

1996-97 tour: Tendulkar’s team lost Test series 0-2; lost tri-series final

The 1996-97 tour of South Africa was the second by an Indian team and it was led by a young captain in batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. It was, in fact, a reciprocating tour after the South Africans toured India in late 1996. The Test series started off on a disastrous note with the visitors getting skittled out for just 66 in the second innings on a bouncy Durban wicket in the first game.

The second game at Cape Town saw a better batting display from India in the first innings with the skipper hammering a 169 along with a century from the former captain Azharuddin but the visitors eventually lost it by a massive 282-run margin, thanks to a batting collapse in the second essay.

The Indians nevertheless came very close to winning their first Test in SA in the third game at Johannesburg but rain and a stubborn 122 not out from Daryll Cullinan saved the day for the hosts. This Test saw two solid innings of148 & 81 from Rahul Dravid, who hit his first ton in the longest format of the game.

India lost the series 0-2 while Donald was picked as the man of the series yet again for taking 20 wickets.

India did no better in the tri-series that followed the Tests. Tendulkar’s side was routed thrice South Africa and even by Zimbabwe, the third side in the fray, once. India also tied one game with Zimbabwe. It was only when Tendulkar belted a 97-ball-104 against Zimbabwe at Benoni that India met the challenge of pipping the African side’s run rate to reach the final.

In the rematch of the final after the first was washed out, India snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, losing yet another encounter against the South Africans. The final is remembered for the verbal abuse that Donald hurled at Dravid after the latter lifted him out of the park.