The South African cricket team visited India for cricket matches in the 2005–06 season. All the matches were one-day games, with five One Day Internationals and a tour match against a team from Hyderabad. Both sides were coming off series wins, India beating Sri Lanka 6–1 at home while South Africa had enjoyed a 5–0 win over New Zealand. Before the series, the BBC Sport website had a preview which argued that India and South Africa were both "more serious challengers to Australia'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 rained off, the series was drawn 2–2. The Man of the Series award was also shared, between Graeme Smith of South Africa and Yuvraj Singh of India, who topped the batting averages of their teams with 209 runs. On the bowling side, Shaun Pollock 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 India South Africa Rahul Dravid (c) Virender Sehwag (vc) Sachin Tendulkar Gautam Gambhir Yuvraj Singh Mohammad Kaif MS Dhoni (wk) Suresh Raina Harbhajan Singh Jai Prakash Yadav Murali Kartik Ajit Agarkar Irfan Pathan RP Singh S. Sreesanth Graeme Smith (c) Jacques Kallis (vc) Mark Boucher (wk) Johan Botha AB de Villiers Andrew Hall Justin Kemp Charl Langeveldt Albie Morkel Shaun Pollock André Nel Makhaya Ntini Justin Ontong Robin Peterson Ashwell Prince

ODI series

1st ODI

2nd ODI

Third ODI 22 November 2005 (D/N)

Fourth ODI

A huge Bengali crowd showed support for South Africa in this match. They were angry over Greg Chappell's decision to exclude Saurav Ganguly leading to Chappell–Ganguly controversy. Later Greg allegedly showed midfinger to the crowd.

Fifth ODI

References

World Cup contenders?, by Oliver Brett, published on BBC Sport 14 November 2005 South Africa Squad from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 Gibbs and Boje pull out of India tour published 31 October 2005 on Cricinfo India Squad from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 Hyderabad XI v South Africans scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 Kallis steers South Africa home, from Cricinfo, published 16 November 2005 1st ODI: India v South Africa, Run-Rate Comparison, published 25 November 2005 1st ODI: India v South Africa scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 2nd ODI: India v South Africa scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 3rd ODI: India v South Africa scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 4th ODI: India v South Africa scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005 5th ODI: India v South Africa scorecard, from Cricinfo, retrieved 15 December 2005

External links BBC Sport | South Africa in India in 2005 Tour home at ESPNcricinfo