Cape Town in the 4th innings (Revised on Jan 12, 2022)

As there is a lot of interest in my earlier post from 2020, I am giving a list of all 4th-innings scores of 150 and above at Cape Town for all Test teams. This may help you to assess the chances of SA (and India) in the ongoing Test.

All scores of 150 and above in the 4th innings of Tests at Cape Town:

From this table, we can see that:

The highest winning score is 334/6 by Australia in 2002.

The highest drawn score is 354/5 (chasing 441) by the West Indies in 2004.

The highest losing score is 335 (chasing 408) by South Africa against New Zealand in 1962.

Notes from the Johannesburg Test

This was the 6th Test played by India at this venue and their first defeat:

It is however difficult for South Africa and other teams to chase 200 or even 150 at this venue. Their 243/3 is their highest winning chase here. These are the only times it has happened:

Winning chases over 150 at Johannesburg:

The SA captain Dean Elgar was left on 96 not out at the end. There are several instances of being stranded in the 90s in a winning chase:

While there is only one 99 here, there are 98s by several including SC Ganguly and other famous names such as Hutton, GS Chappell and Atherton.

AL Wadekar was another Indian player who got up to the 90s when the target was reached.

Onwards to Cape Town:

India has never won at this venue. But if one fortress fell at Johannesburg, perhaps another can fall at Cape Town:

India vs SA at Cape Town:

India has 2 draws and 3 losses here.

Shardul Thakur’s record:

Here are the best innings bowling performances in India-South Africa Tests:

SN Thakur’s 7-61 in SA’s first innings was the best for India v SA. The previous best was 7-66 by R Ashwin at Nagpur in 2015. The previous best for India v SA in SA was 7-120 by Harbhajan Singh at Cape Town in 2011.

His match bowling figures of 8-108 were not so impressive.

Markram again

AK Markram has played 28 Tests. 17 were won by SA, 11 lost and none drawn.

His 28 Tests are the most played by anyone who has not seen a draw. Next is GA Lohmann from 19th-century England, whose 18 Tests included 15 wins and 3 losses.

England and the curse of Cape Town

England recorded its 62nd win (out of  151) against South Africa, the 32nd out of 83 in that country and its 10th win (out of 21) at Cape Town.

Have a look at how they have fared in Cape Town (which has only one Test ground):

Of these 10 wins, 8 were before 1930. The 9th was in 1957 almost exactly 63 years ago, and the 10th was in 2020.

The 1957 win was mainly due to JH Wardle’s 12 wickets.  In 2020, it was Ben Stokes’ 3-dimensional performance with 119 runs, 3 wickets and 6 catches:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/19430/scorecard/1185305/south-africa-vs-england-2nd-test-icc-world-test-championship-2019-2021

England also gained 30 points in the WTC championship and moved into third place. Meanwhile Australia bagged all the 120 points in their series against New Zealand and continued to creep up towards India’s tally.