South Africa vs India, 2021-22 - 2nd Test, Stats Preview: Players records and approaching milestones

KL Rahul’s glorious century in the first innings and lethal bowling from all the pacers, Mohammed Shami in particular, throughout the match helped India beat South Africa for the first time in a Test at Centurion and also becoming the first Asian side to record the feat. The win took India closer to clinching their first-ever Test series victory on South African soil.

India’s pace battery led by the experienced Shami proved too much for the Proteas as they got bundled out for under 200 in both innings. The 31-year old pacer was at his brilliant best as he took eight wickets in the match to even reach his personal milestone of 200 Test scalps. For the hosts, pacers Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi were both amongst the wickets but it’s their batting that let them down.

Apart from skipper Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma, the hosts looked well short in the batting department as Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen both accumulated just 28 runs between them in total in the match. After suffering defeat, South Africa faced another shock with the news of a sudden Test retirement from their 29-year old star wicketkeeper batter Quinton de Kock.

For the tourists, Virat Kohli will hope to seal the deal in the second Test and script history by finally ending their long-awaited series win in the Rainbow nation. On the other hand, the Proteas minus retired Quinton de Kock will look to put on a better show with the bat this time around to square the series and take it to the final Test at Cape Town.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers ahead of South Africa vs India, 2^nd Test:

Head-to-Head: Nothing separates both sides as the Proteas and India have faced each other 40 times in Test history with both teams clinching 15 wins each. 10 Test matches were ended in a draw. In South Africa, India has played 21 Tests, winning four matches, losing ten times while seven games were drawn. In Johannesburg, India has never lost a Test match in five outings. They have won twice and three games were drawn at the venue.

2 – Virat Kohli needs two catches to reach 100 catches milestone in Tests.

33 – KL Rahul requires 33 runs to reach 2500 runs in Tests.

75 – Dean Elgar is 75 runs away from reaching 4500 runs in Test matches.

1 – Ajinkya Rahane is one grab away from completing 100 catches in Test matches.

14 – Virat Kohli needs 14 runs to become second highest run-scorer for India in Tests in South Africa.

6 – R Ashwin needs six wickets to surpass Kapil Dev and become second highest wicket-taker for India in Tests.

5 – Kagiso Rabada requires five wickets to go past Vernon Philander and become seventh highest wicket-taker for South Africa in Tests.

3 – KL Rahul is three fours away from completing 300 fours in Tests.

2 – Aiden Markram needs two fours to reach 400 fours across formats.

7 – Virat Kohli needs seven runs to become visiting batter with most Test runs at Johannesburg.

1 – KL Rahul also requires one catch to reach 50 catches in the longest format of the game.

4 – Rishabh Pant is four grabs away from completing 100 catches in Tests.

2 – Duanne Olivier requires two wickets to complete 50 wickets in Test matches.

1 – Wriddhiman Saha needs one match to reach 50 matches across formats.

1 – Rassie van der Dussen requires one four to reach 200 fours across formats.

2 – Kagiso Rabada needs two wickets to complete 150 Test wickets in South Africa.

1 – Ishant Sharma is one match away from playing 200 matches for India across formats.

5 – Kagiso Rabada needs five wickets to complete 400 wickets across formats.

1 – Ishant Sharma requires one wicket to surpass Zaheer Khan and become fifth highest wicket-taker for India in Tests.