World Cup 2023: India to come across biggest challenge on Sunday in form of South Africa

In the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, India are set to lock horns against South Africa at Eden Gardens on November 5 and ahead of the fixture, ETV Bharat's Pradeep Singh Rawat sums up the historical data for the matchup between both teams.

Hyderabad: India's unbeaten run to reach the semi-final of the World Cup is a dream-run every team would like to have in any marquee tournament. Team India's toughest game will be on November 5 when they take on South Africa. The Proteas have been the second most successful team in the World Cup 2023 after the Indian team. Although South Africa were toppled by minnows the Netherlands in this World Cup, they won the rest of the games without breaking a sweat and the net run rate is a perfect indicator of this fact. For a brief time, they remained at the top of the table as well. At present, South Africa have a higher net run rate than India in the tournament.

Head to Head records in World Cup-Both the teams have faced each other five times in the World Cups so far. South Africa have won thrice while India have emerged triumphant twice. First three matches were won by South Africa and the recent two were won by the hosts.

In 1992, both the teams met for the first time in the World Cups, and it was a fixture of 30 overs due to the interruption of rain. India posted 180/6 and the South African side achieved the target of 181 runs by losing 4 wickets. When they met in the 1999 World Cup, India managed to post 253/5 on the scoreboard, which South Africa successfully chased in 47.2 overs with four wickets in hand. India became the world champions in the 2011 World Cup and the Proteas pulled off a three wicket win in a league stage game. While Men in Blue scored 296, South Africa responded with 300 with two balls to spare.

Both teams squared off once again in the 2015 World Cup and for the first time India posted a score over 300 against South Africa in World Cup meetings, courtesy of Shikhar Dhawan's brilliant 137. South Africa collapsed on just 177 runs and lost the game by 130 runs. In the 2019 World Cup, the South African team, batting first, could muster only 227 runs with Yuzvendra Chahal's four-fer. Team India won this match by 6 wickets thanks to Rohit Sharma's century.

Highest and lowest score-The highest score in the matches between these two teams was 307 by India in the 2015 World Cup while the lowest score in the matchup was 177 from the same game.

South Africa aces head to head in ODI records-South Africa have a superior head to head record in one dayers and South Africa have won 50 fixtures while their opponents have won 37 games. Three matches were abandoned.

Centurions in the matchup-Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, and Shikhar Dhawan have scored centuries for the Indian side in the World Cup, but none of the batters from South Africa have so far raised their bats to a ton against India in the World Cup.

In ODIs, there are many centurions from both the teams. Master blaster scored his first double-century in one-day cricket against South Africa. Apart from this, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Sanjay Manjrekar, Shreyas Iyer, Voorkeeri Venkat Raman, Yusuf Pathan, and Ravi Shastri have scored centuries against South Africa. On the South African side, players like Jacques Kallis, Gary Kirsten, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock, Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, AC Hudson, Daryl Cullinan, Graeme Smith, Justin Camp, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma have smashed tons.

The fixture can be a tough test for the bowling unit of both teams as India have been brilliant while chasing and the South African batters have scored eight centuries so far in the tournament. South Africa have been superb while batting first and that is the reason several cricket experts have advised that Rohit Sharma should opt to bat first.

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