Watch the highlights of India vs South Africa 1st ODI 1991 - South Africa tour of India 3-match one-day international series of the 1st ODI match first time played between South Africa and India at Eden Gardens, Calcutta in 10th November 1991.
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| Sachin Tendulkar hit a match-winning 62 © YouTube |
Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar's economical bowling figures before Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant half-century and Debutant Pravin Amre's impressive debut fifty helped to India registered their historic first ODI win against debutants South Africa by 3-wickets, despite a Allan Donald's debut five-for and take a 1-0 lead in a low-scoring historic game of the first ODI.
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South Africa scored 177-8 in the allotted 47 overs with top scorer by Kepler Wessels struck 50 off 95-balls including 3-fours.
Adrian Kuiper cracked a 43 off 64-balls including 3-fours & a six, Jimmy Cook scored 17 off consuming 48-balls without a boundary and Richard Snell hit 16 off 13-balls without a boundary.
India best bowler by Kapil Dev captured 2-wickets for 23-runs in 9-overs including two maidens with economy rate of 2.55.
Manoj Prabhakar took 2-wickets for 26-runs in 10-overs included a maiden with economy rate of 2.60, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatapathy Raju and Javagal Srinath each took one-wickets.
India chased 178-7 in 40.4 overs with top scorer by Sachin Tendulkar struck 62 off 73-balls including 8-fours & a six.
Debutant Pravin Amre - who hit 55 off 74-balls on his debut ODI match - including 8-fours & a six and Mohammed Azharuddin scored 16 off 21-balls contained a four.
South Africa best bowler by Allan Donald claimed a 5-wickets for 29-runs in 8.4-overs, Adrian Kuiper and Tim Shaw both took one-wickets.
This match reported by AFP via The Canberra Times
India spoiled South Africa's comeback party here on Sunday, winning an historic one-day cricket international which heralded the Springboks' return to world sport after 21 years of isolation.
But fast bowler Allan Donald ensured the Springboks were not disgraced even if they were defeated at Eden Gardens, where a delirious world-record cricket crowd of 98,000 celebrated India's three-wicket victory with fireworks and bonfires.
The 25-year-old Donald, who has been playing in England with Warwickshire, took five wickets for 29 runs in the first of the two nations' three one-day internationals.
He had India's vaunted batsmen on the mat, as they chased a modest South African total of eight for 177.
India, which had elected to field first after skipper Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss, achieved the target in the 41st over.
For that, Azharuddin had to thank teenage sensation Sachin Tendulkar and newcomer Pravin Amre. It was their century partnership which gave the match to India.
South African manager Ali Bacher, generous in defeat, preferred to comment not so much on the final result as the importance of the match, "It was a happy occasion which we will remember for the rest of our lives. Although we lost the match, the occasion was the winner."
He blamed South Africa's defeat on the pressure brought by the importance of the match, and his players' awe of the overflowing crowd.
"They have never seen crowds like the one at the Eden Gardens today," he said.
Tendulkar, who hit 62 off 80 balls, and Amre, 55, put India on the victory road after Donald had the hosts worried at three for 20 by the seventh over. He removed three of India's best batsmen, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and Navjot Sidhu, in 20 deliveries, during which he gave away only five runs.
Donald, from Orange Free State, had to be content, however, with sharing the man-of-the-match award with Tendulkar, who was picked for special praise by both Bacher and South African skipper Clive Rice.
Rice, 42, said the turning point was a chance to run out Tendulkar when he was three and stranded in the middle of the pitch. But bowler Richard Snell failed to collect the throw from Andrew Hudson.
Tendulkar, 18, made his first-class debut in 1989. In his innings of 62- his best one-day score and his fourth half-century in 19 one-day internationals - he hit eight fours and a six.
Earlier, on a slow wicket, the tourists had struggled after Rice called wrongly when Azharuddin flipped the 1901 Victorian gold-plated silver coin used for the toss.
Former New Zealand and Australian player Kepler Wessels, and Adrian Kuiper, were the only batsmen able to make an impression against a steady Indian attack.
Wessels, 34, the only South African with previous international experience, from his 54 one-day matches for Australia, top-scored with 50. It was his 15th one-day half-century, but his first for South Africa.
Kuiper, 32, an applegrower, made 43. The pair put on 60 for the fourth wicket after India had reduced the visitors to three for 49 in the 23rd over.
The second match in the series is at Gwalior and the third at New Delhi.
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