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

2001-02 tour under Sourav Ganguly: India lost Test series 0-1; lost tri-series final

India’s third tour of South Africa took place in 2001-02 and the outcome was not much different this time either. Led by an aggressive skipper in Sourav Ganguly, India were a much better batting unit this time. Virender Sehwag repeated the feat of Amre when he hit a ton (105) in his debut game at Bloemfontein, giving the other centurion Tendulkar (155) a great company.

But India’s bowling did not have the bite to bother the hosts who took a handsome lead and eventually won the game. India drew the second game at Port Elizabeth, thanks to a gritty batting performance after the Springboks gave them a massive target of 385 to win.

The series was initially of three games but the third Test was made an unofficial one by the International Cricket Council after the match referee Mike Denness had penalised several Indian players, including Tendulkar and skipper Ganguly, on various charges like ball tampering and excessive appealing.

Rahul Dravid captained the game at Centurion in the absence of Ganguly who was banned and India were handed a crushing defeat by an innings and 73 runs by the hosts. The series was, however, won 1-0 by the South Africans since the third match was an unofficial one.

Herschelle Gibbs was adjudged the man of the series. For India, Tendulkar and JavagalSrinath were the most successful batsman and bowler, respectively.

Like the 1996-97 tour, the 2001-02 also featured a tri-series, though preceding the Test series. India managed to defeat South Africa in one of the three round-robin games they played in the tournament though they also lost to Kenya, the third team.

India produced quality batting performance in this competition and qualified for the final but it proved to be a repetition of the 1996-97 series as South Africa won the game by 6 wickets after bundling the visitors out for just 183. Gary Kirsten was chosen as the man of the series while Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh were the most successful Indian batsman and bowler, respectively. South African captain Shaun Pollock finished with the most number of wickets in both the ODI and Test series.