It was the 1486th match in Test history.
It was the 333rd Test for India and 242nd for South Africa.
It was the 12th match between these two sides.The record now reads : South Africa 6,India 2,drawn 4.
It was the 13th match on this ground. The record now reads : India 4,opponents 4,drawn 5.South Africa was playing for the first time on this ground.
Umpires Russel Tiffin and AV Jayaprakash were officiating in their 14th and fourth match respectively.
Mohammad Kaif and Nikhil Chopra were making their Test debut.They became 227th and 228th player to play Test cricket for India.
Nikhil Chopra made his Test debut after playing 36 One-Day Internationals.Only Robin Singh has played in more ODIs (60) before making Test debut for India (Venkatesh Prasad also appeared in 36 ODIs).The world record in this regard is held by Australia's Adam Gilchrist.with 76 ODIs.
Sachin Tendulkar (21),on 5,became the fifth Indian and 29th batsman in Test annals to complete 6000 runs in a Test career He was playing his 76th Test and 120th innings.
Tendulkar,at 26 years and 313 days became the youngest player to complete his 6000 runs,beating the previous record of Pakistan's Javed Miandad quite comprehensively.Miandad was 30 years and 57 days old while completing his 6000 runs.The previous Indian record was held by Sunil Gavaskar with 31 years 198 days of age.
By taking just 120 innings to complete his 6000 runs, Tendulkar became the seventh quickest to do so after Don Bradman (68),Garry Sobers (111), Wally Hammond (114),Len Hutton (116),Ken Barrington (116), and Sunil Gavaskar (117).Viv Richards had also taken 120 innings for his 6000 runs.
Gary Kirsten (79),on 58,completed his 4000 Test runs. He became first South African and 65th batsman overall to do so.He was playing his 60th Test and 105th innings.
Nicky Boje's innings (85) was the 12th highest by a nightwatchman in Test cricket and joint second highest against India.Fellow team-mate Mark Boucher holds the distinction of being the only one to score two hundreds as a nightwatchman. The following table lists some remarkable performances by nightwatchmen in Test cricket.Jack Russell remains the only one to make a fifty plus score as a nightwatchman on Test debut.RunsBatsmanCame inCountriesVenueSeasonat125Mark Boucher205-4SAvZimHarare1999-00108Mark Boucher244-4SAvEngDurban1999-00105Tony Mann13-1AusvIndPerth1977-98101*Syed Kirmani231-3IndvAusBombay1979-80101Nasim ul Ghani77-4PakvEngLord's196299*Alex Tudor3-1EngvNZBirmingham 199998Harold Larwood153-2EngvAusSydney1932-3395Eddie Hemmings3-1EngvAusSydney1982-8394Jack Russell40-1EngvSLLord's198887Peter Taylor54-2AusvNZWellington 1979-8085Wasim Bari19-1PakvIndLahore1978-7985Nicky Boje10-1SAvIndBangalore1999-00
The fifth wicket partnership of 164 between Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener is South Africa's highest for this wicket in any Test,home and away,against India,forging ahead of the previous highest of 99 between Daryll Cullinan and Jonty Rhodes at Johannesburg in 1996-97 and a modest stand of 31 between Hansie Cronje and Dave Richardson at Ahmedabad in 1996-97.
The partnership is the third highest for South Africa for fifth wicket against all countries after the 192 run partnership between Gary Kirsten and Mark Boucher against England at Durban in 1999-00 and 184 runs partnership between Hansie Cronje and Jonty Rhodes at Lord's in 1998.
The partnership is also the second highest by any side against India on latter's soil after the 254 run stand between England's Keith Fletcher and Tony Greig at Mumbai in 1972-73.
The wicket of Jacques Kallis was 50th for Anil Kumble in his 12th match.He became second Indian after Javagal Srinath and 11th bowler overall to do so against South Africa.
South Africa's total (479) was the sixth highest in Test cricket that did not include an individual hundred. It was the second highest such total for South Africa.The details :
Hs Score524-9dInd v NZKanpur1976-7770517SAv AusAdelaide1997-9887*500-8dPak v AusMelbourne1981-8295485Aus v NZChristchurch 1992-9388485Ind v SLNagpur1997-9899479SAv IndBangalore1999-0097477-9dEng v SALeeds199499476Aus v EngAdelaide1911-1298475WIv IndBridgetown1961-6296
Nayan Mongia conceded 24 byes in South Africa's only innings.It was the third maximum amount of byes conceded by an Indian keeper in a Test innings. Budhi Kunderan had conceded 29 byes in England's total of 559 at Kanpur in 1963- 64.Nayan Mongia conceded 28 in Sri Lanka's record total of 952 at Colombo (Premadasa) in 1997-98 and MSK Prasad conceded 24 in NewZealand's second innings total of 251-7 at Mohali in 1999-00.
The three catches by Wasim Jaffer in South Africa's only innings were the most taken by an Indian in the field against South Africa.He equalled VVS Laxman's tally in the first match of this series.
Anil Kumble (6-143) took five or more wickets in an innings for the 16th time in his career.He thus equalled Bhagwat Chandrasekhar's tally.Now only Kapil Dev,23,has taken more five wicket innings hauls than Kumble for India.
It was Kumble's 12th five wicket innings haul in his 31st Test on Indian soil-most for any bowler.He surpassed Kapil's tally of 11 five wicket hauls from 65 Tests.
Kumble has now taken most wickets on this ground - 28 in just 4 Tests.He surpassed Kapil Dev's tally of 27 wickets from 8 Tests.
Mohammad Azharuddin scored his 22nd hundred in his 99th Test.He now has most hundreds contemporary batsman alongwith fellow team-mate Sachin Tendulkar.
It was Azharuddin's 13th hundred on Indian soil in his 46th Test.He thus equalled Dilip Vengsarkar's tally of hundreds on Indian soil.Now only Sunil Gavaskar (16 hundreds in 65 Tests) is ahead of Azharuddin.
The hundred was Azharuddin's fourth against South Africa in 11th Test.Among the contemporary batsmen only Australia's Mark Waugh has scored so many hundreds (in 12 Tests).The alltime record,however,is held by another Australian Neil Harvey (8 hundreds in 14 Tests).
Azharuddin now holds the dubious distinction of scoring seven hundreds for India in matches which it has lost.He thus joins fellow team-mate Sachin Tendulkar to score maximum-sevenhundreds-and yet ended up on losing side.
During his three figure innings,Azharuddin regained his position of leading run-scorer for India against South Africa.Azharuddin's run-aggregate against South Africa at the end of this match reads as 779 runs from 11 Tests (ave.41.00).He overtook Tendulkar's aggregate of 755 from as many Tests (ave.34.31).
Nicky Boje's figures (5-83) in India's second innings are the second best by a spinner for South Africa since its return to international cricket in 1991-92 after Paul Adams 6 for 55 also against India at Kanpur in 1996-97.
Nicky Boje became 10th South African to perform the allround feat of scoring a fifty and capturing five wickets in an innings in same match.The details :
Batting Bowling Allrounder Opp. Venue Season106 6-26 J.H.Sinclair Eng Cape Town 1898-99 90 6-92 C.B.Llewellyn Aus Johannesburg 1902-03 78 & 123 5-120 G.A.Faulkner Eng Johannesburg 1909-10 61 5-102 R.O.Schwarz Aus Sydney 1910-11 72* 5-87 B.Mitchell Aus Durban 1935-36 74 5-69 T.L.Goddard Eng Leeds 1955 66* 6-81 P.S.de Villiers Pak Johannesburg 1994-95 70* 6-50 S.M.Pollock Pak Durban 1997-98 110 & 88* 5-90 J.H.Kallis WI Cape Town 1998-99 85 5-83 N.Boje Ind Bangalore 1999-00
Boje also became 14th player (on 15th occasion) to perform the allround feat of a fifty and five wicket haul in same match against India.England's Ian Botham has done so twice. The last allrounder to do so was WestIndies Carl Hooper (81 & 67,5-116,Nagpur,1994-95).
The victory was South Africa's 27th under Hansie Cronje's captaincy.This puts Cronje at level with Viv Richards among the captains with most Test wins.Now only Clive Lloyd (36) and Allan Border (32) have more Test wins as a captain .
The defeat was India's 32nd by an innings margin-first against South Africa.India hasn't faced innings defeat in 55 home Tests prior to this Test.Incidentally the last occasion India lost a home Test by an innings was against WestIndies at Calcutta in 1983-84.
The defeat was India's fifth in a row.India is now inching towards its worst run in Test cricket. It had lost seven consecutive matches from Leeds 1967 (v England) to Sydney 1967-68 (v Australia).
India lost a home series for the first time since losing to Pakistan (1-0) in a five match series in 1986-87.It was also the seventh occasion when India was completely routed in a series. India had suffered the ultimate ignominy of losing all five matches of a series on two occasions - versus England in 1959 and WestIndies in 1961-62. India had earlier suffered a 4-0 whitewash by invincible Australians in 1947- 48.India later lost all the three matches of a series versus England (in 1967 and 1974) and Australia (in 1999-00). What is unique with India's series loss against South Africa is that this was achieved on home soil.India's all other pathetic performances in a series came on foreign soil.
The last time India lost two consecutive matches in same series on home soil was way back in 1976-77 when England emerged victorious in first two Tests (Delhi and Calcutta) of a five match series (infact England went on to win Chennai Test to make it three in a row).
South Africa last series defeat came against England in 1998 by 2-1.Since then it has won five series in a row.The sequence being : 5-0 v WestIndies (5),1-0 v NewZealand (3),2- 0 v Zimbabwe (2),2-1 v England (5) and now 2-0 v India (2).
At the end of the series :
South Africa's overall Test record : played 242,won 70, lost 91 and drawn 81.India's overall Test record : played 333,won 61,lost 112, drawn 159 and tied 1.
Hansie Cronje's captaincy record : played 53,won 27,lost 11 and drawn 15.
Sachin Tendulkar's captaincy record : played 25,won 4, lost 9 and drawn 12.