South Africa's home run, and the McGrath-Warne show

Graeme Smith: home conditions suit him just fine © AFP

India's embarrassing capitulation against South Africa at Durban on Wednesday created new lows - the 91 they scored was their lowest score in the country, while the margin of defeat, 157, was the highest for South Africa against India. The Indians have now lost nine of their last 13 matches, but when all the berating is done, it's perhaps time to look at the kind of opposition they lost to.

South Africa in South Africa are easily among the most formidable oppositions for any team in one-day cricket. In their last 24 ODIs on home turf, they have lost exactly three. Two of those losses were in successive matches to Australia, but in the very next game after those setbacks, they chased down a small matter of 434 to clinch the series. Their only other loss during this period was to England, but that a mere aberration as South Africa went on to clinch the series.

The impressive aspect about South Africa's domination at home is that they've sustained it over a considerable period of time. The table below includes all ODIs played since 1995, and South Africa's numbers are extremely impressive - 89 wins in 122 games, and a win-loss ratio that is next only to Sri Lanka's. Quite interestingly, Australia have won nearly the same number of games, but they have been beaten eight more times than the South Africans.

In the last 12 years, the only team which has consistently got the better of the South Africans at home is Australia, who have won 12 out of 22 games. India's record is admittedly a dismal one - one win in ten games, but New Zealand and Pakistan have done even worse. If the Indians continue with their shoddy display over the next three games, though, they will slide below both New Zealand and Pakistan.

Among the current lot of players, Graeme Smith (batting) and Shaun Pollock (bowling) are the ones who have enjoyed home advantage the most. Smith averages seven more at home than he does overseas, while Pollock takes his wickets almost four runs cheaper.

Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne first played a Test together 13 years back, against New Zealand at Perth, and did little of note. McGrath, making his debut, finished with 3 for 142, while Warne toiled 40 overs for just a solitary wicket in the drawn game. Since then, though, they've both done just a touch better, and in the first Test of the Ashes at Brisbane achieved the rare feat of playing 100 Tests together.

In the 99 Tests that the two have played together, Australia have won 66 - that's exactly two-thirds - and have lost just 16. The table below lists their performances in games they've both played in. Adding up the percentages of team wickets taken by both, it turns out that McGrath and Warne have combined to deliver more than 55% of opposition wickets in these matches. These are outstanding stats, but also indicative of just huge a vacuum there'll be in the Australian bowling attack when the two finally quit the game.

Last week's column had mentioned that Mohammad Yousuf needed 395 more runs in two Tests to equal Viv Richards's record for the most number of runs in a calendar year. That works out to 197.5 runs per Test, but at Multan Yousuf overshot that target significantly, thanks to his seventh hundred of the year. His match tally of 247 now leaves him with 148 more to get to equal the annual aggregate of 1710. Let the countdown begin.