South Africa vs India, 2018: 5th ODI – Statistical Highlights

India registered their maiden ODI series victory on the South African soil following a convincing 73-run in the 5th ODI in St. George’s Park to seal the 6-match series. Rohit Sharma finally came to the party of this tour with a 115-run knock which was followed by yet another middle-order debacle allowing India to post only 274/7. Despite a couple of big partnerships, the Saffers couldn’t put any real pressure on Indians in the chase and eventually bowled out for 201 in the 43rd over.

All the stats and numbers that were created during India’s maiden win in Port Elizabeth:

1 – Rohit Sharma became the first Indian to score an ODI century in Port Elizabeth. Virat Kohli’s 87* in 2011 was the previous highest individual score in India’s previous five ODIs at this venue.

9 – India became only the 2nd team to win nine bilateral ODI series in a succession. West Indies won 15 consecutive series including one-off games between 1980 and 1988.

16 – Number of wickets for Kuldeep Yadav in this ODI series. These are the most for any spinner in an ODI series/tournament in South Africa. M Muralitharan bagged 14 wickets in the 1998 Tri-Series while Yuzvendra Chahal also took 14 wickets in the ongoing series. No spinner took more than 12 wickets in a bilateral ODI series in South Africa prior to Kuldeep and Chahal.

30 – The 30 wickets by Indian spinners in this series are the most by them in any bilateral ODI series. The Indian spinners shared 27 wickets between them in the 2006 home ODI series against England.

48 – Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit’s 48-run stand is the highest opening partnership for India in 19 ODIs on the South African soil. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar’s 74-run stand is last 50+ opening stand for India in the ODIs in South Africa.

57 – Number of sixes for Rohit Sharma in the 2017/18 season across formats. He now holds the record for the most number of sixes in International cricket in a season surpassing Martin Guptill’s 56 sixes in 2015/16 season.

429 – Virat Kohli became the first player to aggregate 400+ runs in a 6-match bilateral ODI series. He is also the 2nd Indian after Rohit Sharma to score 400+ runs in a bilateral ODI series. Rohit scored 491 and 441 in 2013 and 2016 respectively against Australia.

500 – MS Dhoni became the first Indian wicket-keeper and the 8th player overall to affect 500 dismissals in List A cricket. Dhoni took 375 catches and affected 125 stumpings as a keeper in this format.

2004 – Virat Kohli’s 36 is the 2nd highest score in Indian innings. The last instance of an Indian scoring an ODI hundred with the 2nd highest score being 36 and lower was Sachin Tendulkar back in 2004. He scored 141 against Pakistan in the Rawalpindi ODI where Rahul Dravid was the 2nd highest scorer with 36.