By Admin 
The South African team continued to play cricket matches against Australia, New Zealand and England till the 1960s. Meanwhile, protests against the ‘apartheid policy’ continued. Ultimately, this team was banned.
When this ban was lifted from the South African team after 21 years, it played its first series against India. The South African team toured India in November 1991 for a three-match ODI series.
At that time the series between India and Pakistan was cancelled. BCCI immediately wanted to play a series with some country. In such a situation, it was decided to organize an ODI series between India and South Africa in November.
The South African team came to play its first ODI match on 10 November 1991. This match played at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata was of 47-47 overs, in which the South African team lost the toss.
India invited the visiting team to bat first and this team could score only 177 runs after losing 8 wickets in the stipulated overs. In this innings, Kepler Wessels played an inning of 50 runs in 95 balls. For India, Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar took 2-2 wickets.
In response, India won the match by 3 wickets in 40.4 overs on the basis of brilliant innings of Sachin Tendulkar (62) and Praveen Amre (55). Even though the South African team lost the match, Allan Donald shone by taking 5 wickets for 29 runs in 8.4 overs.
The South African team had lost the first match of its ODI career. Now, to save the series, they had to win the match to be played in Gwalior on 12th November at any cost, but the host team once again spoiled South Africa’s intentions.
On this ground, South Africa won the toss for the first time in its ODI history and decided to bowl.
India scored 223 runs losing 6 wickets in the stipulated 45 overs. The pair of Krishnammachari Srikanth (68) and Navjot Sidhu (61) gave a great start to Team India. Both the batsmen added 130 runs for the first wicket. Sanjay Manjrekar scored 52 runs. For the opposition team, Alan Donald took 3 wickets for 36 runs.
In response, the South African team could score only 185 runs after losing 8 wickets in the stipulated 45 overs. Meanwhile, Kepler Wessels played an innings of 71 runs in 96 balls with 6 fours, but the visitors could not help the team win. However, he was chosen ‘Player of the Match’.
Even though the South African team had lost the first series in its ODI history, it had a chance to save its honour. The third match of the series was played in Delhi, in which India, batting first, scored 287 runs losing 4 wickets in 50 overs. In this match, captain Ravi Shastri remained unbeaten after scoring 109 runs, while Sanjay Manjrekar played an inning of 105 runs.
Looking at the previous matches, it seemed that the South African team would lose this match too, but Kepler Wessels gave the team a strong start by making a partnership of 72 runs for the first wicket with Jimmy Cook.
Jimmy was out after scoring 35 runs, after which Wessels along with Peter Christian put the team on the path to victory by scoring 111 runs for the second wicket.
Wessels returned to the pavilion after playing an innings of 90 runs with 10 fours. From here, Peter made an unbroken partnership with Adrian Kuiper for the third wicket and led the team to victory in 46.4 overs with 8 wickets remaining. This was the first win in South Africa’s ODI history.