The South African cricket team visited India for

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

matches in the 2005–06 season. All the matches were one-day games, with five

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s and a tour match against a team from

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. Both sides were coming off series wins,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

beating

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

6–1 at home while

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

had enjoyed a 5–0 win over

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Before the series, the

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

website had a preview which argued that India and South Africa were both "more serious challengers to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's crown" as defending World Champions, and that the crowds "could be in for some seriously good cricket" It was a close series, at any rate – South Africa took the lead twice in the series, but couldn't hold on, and with the third ODI at

M. A. Chidambaram Stadium M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, commonly known as the Chepauk Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Chepauk, Chennai. It is named after former BCCI president M. A. Chidambaram, and is operated by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. It was established ...

rained off, the series was won by India 3–2. The Man of the Series award was also shared, between

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa national cricket team, South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed Captain (cricket), captain of the So ...

of South Africa and

Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is a former Indian international cricketer who played in all formats of the game. An all-rounder who batted left-handed in the middle order and bowled slow left-arm orthodox, he has won 7 Player of the Se ...

of India, who topped the batting averages of their teams with 209 runs. On the bowling side,

Shaun Pollock Shaun Maclean Pollock (born 16 July 1973) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer, who was captain in all formats of the game. A bowling all-rounder, Pollock along with Allan Donald formed a bowling partnership for many year ...

contributed with seven wickets and nine maiden overs, but went for 5.5 an over in the final ODI, when India were set 222 runs to win in 50 overs.

Squads

ODI series

1st ODI

2nd ODI

Third ODI

Fourth ODI

A huge

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

crowd showed support for South Africa in this match. They were angry over

Greg Chappell Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminent ...

's decision to exclude

Saurav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), also known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer. He is popularly called the ''Maharaja of Ind ...

leading to Chappell–Ganguly controversy. Later Greg allegedly showed midfinger to the crowd.

Fifth ODI

References

#
World Cup contenders?
by Oliver Brett, published on

14 November 2005 #
South Africa Squad
from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #

published 31 October 2005 on Cricinfo #

from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #
Hyderabad XI v South Africans
scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #

from Cricinfo, published 16 November 2005 #

published 25 November 2005 #

scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #

scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #

scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #

scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 #

scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005

External links

BBC Sport , South Africa in India in 2005

Tour home
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:South African cricket team in India in 2005-06 2005 in Indian cricket 2005 in South African cricket Indian cricket seasons from 2000–01 International cricket competitions in 2005–06 2005-06