India are overwhelming underdogs

Stats preview for the first Test between South Africa and India in Johannesburg

14-Dec-2006

The South Africans will be waiting to have another crack at India, and they have the numbers to back them © Getty Images

A Test victory in South Africa, let alone a series triumph, has always eluded India, since their first tour in 1992-93. India have toured there three times for Test series, and each has been disappointing. In 1992-93, they were up against a South Africa side which had just seen daylight in international cricket after over 20 years. After drawing the first two Tests, they lost the third quite decisively. A whitewash in 1996-97 seemed likely after the first two Tests, but Rahul Dravid restored some pride in the third, before Daryll Cullinan and bad light stood in the way of a possible maiden victory for India. Dravid's last-day heroics with Deep Dasgupta at Port Elizabeth saved India a Test in 2001-02 - a match marred by the Mike Denness affair. India have drawn both their Tests in Johannesburg, the venue for the first Test, while South Africa have had mixed results, winning three and losing two of their last five matches at the Wanderers.

India v South Africa head-to-head Test record
	Matches	SA won	India won	Draw
Overall	16	7	3	6
In SA	9	4	0	5
In India	7	3	3	1

It is often taken for granted that Indian batsmen are sitting ducks on South African pitches, but the statistics reveal a twist. With the exception of Virender Sehwag, the least experienced among the big guns, the rest average more in South Africa than at home. Sachin Tendulkar, for instance, has scored all his three centuries against the South Africans in their own backyard. The table below indicates that while the individual records make for good reading, the batsmen have failed to click collectively.

Indian batsmen against South Africa, overall and in South Africa
Player	Overall	Runs	Ave	In SA	Runs	Ave	Diff
Tendulkar	16	1003	37.14	9	636	42.40	5.26
Sehwag	4	411	68.50	2	149	49.66	- 18.84
Dravid	12	829	39.47	5	379	42.11	2.64
Ganguly	11	522	27.47	5	292	32.44	4.97
Laxman	9	330	27.50	4	190	47.50	20.00

India's woes at the top of the order have been perennial, and there seems to be no solution in sight on this tour as well, given the travails of Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer. Since 1992-93, the Indian openers average 32.07 in 29 completed innings while the corresponding figure for their South African counterparts stands at 45 in the same number of innings.

Arriving at a settled opening pair has put the team management in a quandary in all tours. The 1992-93 series had three different combinations but on the next tour the number of combinations - four - outnumbered the number of Tests, as players like Dravid and Nayan Mongia had to fill in as makeshift openers. Interestingly, the only two occasions when the Indian openers have managed to add more than 50 in South Africa has been at the Wanderers in Johannesburg: the highest stand is 90 between Vikram Rathore and Mongia in 1996-97, with the second-highest being 68 between Ajay Jadeja and Ravi Shastri in 1992-93.

The Wanderers is a happy hunting ground for Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs. Smith averages a massive average of 79.33 in four matches while Gibbs scores more than 62 per innings in six games. Kallis, however, hasn't had as much success averaging 41.75 in 11 games, 14 less than his career average. Among the bowlers, Shaun Pollock has an excellent record, with 46 wickets in 12 Tests at a miserly average of 23.32.

The South African wickets have traditionally been graveyards for spinners, and after the encouraging performance of the Indian seamers in the tour game at Potchefstroom, it's unlikely that they will field both Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Kumble, who has 31 wickets in nine Tests in South Africa, averages 35.32, seven runs more than his career average. In South Africa, Indian spinners have accounted for 42 wickets while their seamers have scalped more than twice the number - 87. South Africa have used their fast men to good effect, accounting for 126 wickets, while the purchase among the spinners barely even deserves mention, with just 12.

However, while the Indian spinners have been among the wickets here, they have certainly helped keep the runs in check. Among all ten Test-playing countries, it is in South Africa where the Indian spinners have bowled the highest percentage of maidens - 25.87, since 1992.

Percentage of maidens by Indian spinners in select Test countries since 1992
Country	Total overs	Maidens	Maiden percentage
South Africa	765.3	198	25.87
New Zealand	363.5	98	25.58
India	7413.5	1863	25.13
Australia	686.1	112	16.32
Pakistan	429.3	58	13.51

Teams batting first have enjoyed greater success in this ground - the overall ground records show that in 28 matches, 11 have been won by the side batting first, as opposed to seven by the side batting second. However, the last ten games tell a slightly different story. Teams batting second have won five of those games, one of which was the two-wicket thriller against Australia earlier this year.

Graeme Smith Shaun Pollock Jacques Kallis Anil Kumble Rahul Dravid India South Africa India tour of South Africa

Kanishkaa Balachandran is editorial assistant of Cricinfo. For some stats he was helped by Arun Gopalakrishnan