New Delhi, December 2 – The South African cricket team played matches only against Australia, New Zealand and England until the 1960s. During this period, opposition to the ‘apartheid policy’ continued. Eventually, this team was banned from international cricket.
When the ban on the South African team was lifted after 21 years, they played their first series against India. The South African team came to India in November 1991 for a three-match ODI series.
At that time, the series between India and Pakistan had been cancelled. The BCCI immediately wanted to play a series with some country. In this situation, it was decided to organize an ODI series between India and South Africa in November.
The South African team played their first ODI match on November 10, 1991. This match was played at Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata and was a 47-over affair, in which the South African team lost the toss.
India invited the visiting team to bat first and they could manage only 177 runs losing 8 wickets in the stipulated overs. In this innings, Kepler Wessels played an innings of 50 runs in 95 balls. From India’s side, Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar took 2 wickets each.
In reply, India won the match by 3 wickets in just 40.4 overs on the strength of brilliant innings by Sachin Tendulkar (62) and Praveen Amre (55). Although the South African team lost the match, Allan Donald shone by taking 5 wickets giving away 29 runs in 8.4 overs.
The South African team had lost their first ODI match of their career. Now to save the series, they had to win the match to be played in Gwalior on November 12 at all costs, but the host team again dampened South Africa’s intentions.
On this ground, South Africa won the toss for the first time in their ODI history and decided to bowl first.
India scored 223 runs losing 6 wickets in the stipulated 45-over game. Team India got a brilliant start from the pair of Krishnamachari Srikkanth (68) and Navjot Sidhu (61). Both batsmen added 130 runs for the first wicket. Sanjay Manjrekar scored 52 runs. For the opposition team, Allan Donald took 3 wickets giving away 36 runs.
In reply, the South African team could score only 185 runs losing 8 wickets in the stipulated 45 overs. During this, Kepler Wessels played an innings of 71 runs with 6 fours in 96 balls, but could not give victory to the visiting team. However, he was chosen as ‘Player of the Match’.
By now the South African team had lost their first ODI series in history, but they had a chance to save face.
The third match of the series was played in Delhi, in which India, batting first, scored 287 runs losing 4 wickets in 50 overs. In this match, captain Ravi Shastri remained unbeaten with 109 runs, while Sanjay Manjrekar played an innings of 105 runs.
Looking at the previous matches, it seemed that the South African team would lose this match too, but Kepler Wessels gave the team a strong start by partnering with Jimmy Cook for 72 runs for the first wicket.
Jimmy was out after scoring 35 runs, after which Wessels added 111 runs for the second wicket with Peter Kirsten and put the team on the path to victory.
Wessels returned to the pavilion after playing an innings of 90 runs with 10 fours. From here, Peter made an unbroken partnership with Adrian Kuiper for the third wicket and gave the team victory in 46.4 overs with 8 wickets remaining. This was South Africa’s first victory in ODI history.
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