It was the 1575th ODI match in cricket history.
It was India's 437th match. The record now reads: won 197, lost 219, tied 3 and no result 18.
It was South Africa's 188th match. The record now reads: won 116, lost 66, tied 1 and no result 5.
It was 34th match between these two sides. The record now reads: India 12, South Africa 21, no result 1.
It was 14th match between these two sides on Indian soil. The record now reads: India 9, South Africa 5.
It was 209th match on Indian soil and fourth on this ground - first between these two sides. India has won all the three matches it has played on this ground.
Umpires K.Hariharan and I.Sivaram were officiating in their fourth and sixth match respectively.
Saba Karim was making a comeback into Indian team after missing 45 matches. He last appeared for India against Pakistan at Mohali on 01-04-1999.
Gary Kirsten (72), on 42, completed his 1000 runs against India in his 19th match and innings. He became first South African and 15th batsman to do so.
The opening partnership of 153 runs between Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar is India's best for this wicket against South Africa. This obliterated the previous record stand of 130 runs between Krish Srikkanth and Navjot Singh Sidhu at Gwalior on 12-11-1991.
The partnership is also the third highest by any side for opening wicket wicket against South Africa after the 165 run stand between England's Nasser Hussain and Nick Knight at Bloemfontein on 23-01-2000 and 154 run stand (unbroken) between West Indians Desmond Haynes and Brian Lara at Port-of- Spain on 11-04-1992.
Tendulkar and Ganguly have now aggregated 3594 runs for the first wicket in the 76 innings (in which they opened the innings for India) at an average of 48.56. They thus became the second most successful opening pair in game's history surpassing Australia's David Boon and Geoff Marsh's aggregate of 3524 runs from 88 innings (ave.40.04). Now only West Indies' Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes are ahead of Indian pair with 5150 runs in 102 innings (ave.52.55).
Sachin Tendulkar (122) scored his 25th ODI hundred in his 241st match - his first in last 15 matches. He had last scored a hundred against NewZealand (186*) at Hyderabad on 08-11- 1999.
The hundred was Tendulkar's second against South Africa. He, in the course, became first Indian and only the sixth batsman to score two hundreds against South Africa joining the ranks of three West Indians Brian Lara, Phil Simmons and Carl Hooper, an Australian Mark Waugh and a Pakistani Ijaz Ahmed. Overall it was the 25th hundred made against South Africa.
Tendulkar's innings is the highest for India against South Africa. This obliterated the previous highest of 114 achieved on two separate occasions, first by W.V.Raman at Centurion on 11-12-1992 and by Tendulkar himself at Mumbai on 14-12-1996.
Tendulkar's innings is also the joint second highest by any batsman against South Africa after West Indian S.Chanderpaul's 150 at East London on 24-01-1999. Another West Indian Phil Simmons also made 122 at Kingston on 07-04-1992.
The victory off the penultimate ball was India's third narrowest in terms of balls while chasing a target. India had beaten Pakistan by 3 wickets at Dhaka on 18-01-1998 and New Zealand by 2 wickets at Napier on 12-01-1999 with just one ball to spare.
India became first team to beat South Africa on two occasions while chasing a target of 275 plus. The previous such instance for India was in the first match of this series at Kochi on 09-03-2000 when India became first team ever to score 300 runs in a match against South Africa.
The victory in this match sealed the fate of series in India's favour. It was only fifth time when South Africa lost a series. All but one series losses have come on foreign soil.The details:SeriesVenueScoreSeasonv EnglandEngland2-0 (2)1994v IndiaIndia2-1 (3)1991-92v WestIndiesWestIndies3-0 (3)1991-92v AustraliaSouth Africa4-3 (7)1996-97v IndiaIndia3-1+ (5)1999-00
+ one match remainingThe Man of Match award was 36th for Tendulkar. It was his third award against South Africa - most for India.