Best ever tour of South Africa?

[Jimmy Cliff]

So I just saw Shastribot claiming on Twitter that this was "easily India's best ever tour of South Africa by a country mile".

 

 

In terms of the raw numbers across the formats he may well be right as India won 8 games against SA on this tour whereas on the previous 6 tours put together we won just 9 games against SA. However, as well as we did play in the LOIs, I can't help but look back on this tour as a missed opportunity for obvious reasons. Personally I'd still rate the 2010-11 tour as the best ever as we actually drew the Test series 1-1 and did decently enough in the LOIs.

 

Which tour would you guys rate higher?

 

Results | South Africa vs India | 2010-11

 

Results | South Africa vs India | 2018

[jusarrived]

The 2011 series was arguably India's best away result considering the team we played and conditions we historically struggled the most . 

 

The ODI series off course would be one of our best performances ever , but I would take a test series win or even a draw over it any day . We lost a series which matters a lot more .So no this is not our best in SA .

[Number]

No 

[Gollum]

2010-11 and it isn't even close. We drew the test series against a much better SA team and  had a chance to close out the series heading in to the final 4 sessions. 

 

Even in ODIs we played better then, only problem we came against a beast ODI unit which was almost unbeatable in home bilaterals...the present ODI team would lose 1-4 or max 2-3 against that SA ODI unit. 

[jf1gp_1]

This is our best tour of SA, sure we might have better wins in SA but 1 test plus 7 of 9 wins in shorter version. Well done.

[sandeep]

This series joins the 2003 tour down under - where we came within a missed Parthiv Patel stumping of winning the test series.

 

You will always wonder whether playing Rahane in all 3 tests, or Bhuvi in T2, would have done the job.  

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

This series joins the 2003 tour down under - where we came within a missed Parthiv Patel stumping of winning the test series.

 

You will always wonder whether playing Rahane in all 3 tests, or Bhuvi in T2, would have done the job.  

Not taking PP to SA would have been enough, clown dropped 4 catches (Amla, Du Plesses x2, Rabada)......Amla added 50 runs after his drop and Faf 100 runs after his 2 let offs !!!!

[philcric]

Yes.

 

If only test series, 2011 > 2018.

 

If test + LOI, 2018 >> 2011.

 

[ravishingravi]

No way. That was a really tough SA team with Steyn at his peak. India drew the series that they could have won with better preparation. 

 

Again the ODI team was much more complete and tougher side. 

 

As someone noted, 2003 WC imo, was peak of Indian cricket. I haven’t seen India dominate teams like how we did then. 

[cowboysfan]

For me you lose the test series then everything after that really doesnt matter,it only matters for experience for the WC.We had a golden chance to win the test series against a weak SA side if we had prepared better and not made catastrophic team selections.

[mancalledsting]

It's close, between 2010 and current series. Although happened in the less important format, the site of any Indian cricketing team going into another's backyard (especially a top ranked team) and just destroying them is unprecedented. This victory will inspire confidence in the other formats overseas and take away the metal barrier that's plagued us for ages. 

[Vilander]

5 hours ago, BeardedAladdin said:

Test cricket doesn't mean anything to me, and i'd imagine most fans my age think the same way.

 

So Shastri is 100% correct.

 

Winning 8 out of 12 games is a success, even at home. Even more so against a highly ranked team away from home.

 

The only people that disagree with this view are the old farts that attach too much importance to test cricket, and the gora point of view. Those people are a minority.

How old are you range 

[Trichromatic]

We won the test match in last session, otherwise clean sweep always looked on cards. Never got much ahead of saffers in test till that last session. 

 

On the other hand saffers had to bail themselves out of the test series loss. There is huge difference in test matches performances in 2010 and 2018.

We completely dominated ODIs this time, while we lost it in 2011 3-2.

 

T20I we won both time. 

 

It's close.

[vvvslaxman]

Having watched all the series this is by far the best ever tour by India. India annihilated them in the one dayer. India inflicted the worst ever limited over defeat on SA in SA which is a huge achievement.

 

https://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/proteas-set-unwanted-white-ball-landmark-20180225

 

By surrendering the decisive third Twenty20 international to India for a 2-1 series defeat, they also became the first Proteas outfit ever to lose both limited-overs portions of a tour here by a single bilateral foe.   ....

 

 

[adi B]

Saf is the only place where we haven't won an odi series so this definitely is the best tour we've had in Africa. If we had won an odi series prior to this in saf then I would have said 2010-11 tour tops this.

Fact is even in 2010 we didn't win the test series  which we should have ,same as this time.

 

[adi B]

23 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

Having watched all the series this is by far the best ever tour by India. India annihilated them in the one dayer. India inflicted the worst ever limited over defeat on SA in SA which is a huge achievement.

 

https://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/proteas-set-unwanted-white-ball-landmark-20180225

 

By surrendering the decisive third Twenty20 international to India for a 2-1 series defeat, they also became the first Proteas outfit ever to lose both limited-overs portions of a tour here by a single bilateral foe.   ....

 

 

Yup ,we have done decently in tests in saf in the last 4 tours,it were the odis where we always got smashed every time ,we had a horrible odi record against saf in saf ,glad that has changed this time .

A test series win of course tops everything but alas 

[rtmohanlal]

2011 series was the best series so far

India drew the test series 1-1(most important format)

lost the one day series narrowly 3-2

won the single T20.

 

 

[mancalledsting]

4 hours ago, Trichromatic said:

We won the test match in last session, otherwise clean sweep always looked on cards. Never got much ahead of saffers in test till that last session. 

 

On the other hand saffers had to bail themselves out of the test series loss. There is huge difference in test matches performances in 2010 and 2018.

We completely dominated ODIs this time, while we lost it in 2011 3-2.

 

T20I we won both time. 

 

It's close.

We were clear favourites going into final day with pitch conditions, only when wicket eased out on final day did South Africa look favourites.

[velu]

35 minutes ago, mancalledsting said:

We were clear favourites going into final day with pitch conditions, only when wicket eased out on final day did South Africa look favourites.

 

saffers watered it  

[vvvslaxman]

18 hours ago, cowboysfan said:

For me you lose the test series then everything after that really doesnt matter,it only matters for experience for the WC.We had a golden chance to win the test series against a weak SA side if we had prepared better and not made catastrophic team selections.

It was more self-inflicted more than they handed us the series loss. India bowled them out for under 200 three times out of 6 innings. India chasing 4th innings was also a factor.  First time with Rahane we could have chased that out.