Milestones to aim for the players in India vs South Africa ODI series

Hashim Amla can become the quickest to score 6000 runs

The five-match ODI series between India and South Africa is expected to be a great encounter between the second and the third-ranked sides in ODIs. Both the teams have had quite a similar year of 2015. Both the teams ended up as the Semi-Finalists of the ICC World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand. In their next ODI series, they both lost to Bangladesh 2-1 in the three-match ODI series.

Five of the top 10 ranked ODI batsmen will play in this series - AB de Villiers (#1), Hashim Amla (#2), Virat Kohli (#3), Shikhar Dhawan (#6) and MS Dhoni (#8). Four of the top 10 ranked ODI bowlers will be in this series - Imran Tahir (#1), Dale Steyn (#5), Ravichandran Ashwin (#9) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (#10).

No doubt a tough competition is expected from this series by the cricket fans across the world. There are some major milestones which the players would aim for to reach in this series. They are listed below.

• 1. Hashim Amla needs 81 runs in next 17 innings to become the quickest batsman to score 6000 runs in the history of ODIs. There are five ODIs in the series and he should get there in one of those. He has 5919 runs in 118 innings in his ODI career and at present the batsman who took least number of innings to score 6000 ODI runs is Virat Kohli in 136 innings. Amla is already the quickest player to score 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 ODI runs.
  2. Hashim Amla needs 27 runs to complete 1000 ODI runs in this calendar year. AB de Villiers needs 165 to do the same. So far Kane Williamson (1317), Martin Guptill (1287), Ross Taylor (1041) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (1003) have scored 1000+ ODI runs in 2015. Hashim Amla is fifth with 973 runs and AB de Villiers is eighth with 835 runs.
  3. MS Dhoni needs to affect six stumpings to get past Kumar Sangakkara’s record of most number of stumpings in International cricket. Sangakkara affected 139 stumpings while MS Dhoni has 134 stumpings to his credit. With five ODIs in the series, Dhoni can break this record.
  4. AB de Villiers 50 more runs to become the second highest run getter among South Africans in ODIs. He has 8045 runs to his name and with 50 more runs he will go past Herschelle Gibbs’ mark of 8094 runs. Jacques Kallis is the highest run getter among South Africans with 11579 runs.
  5. MS Dhoni requires another 153 runs to become the second highest run-getter as captain in the history of ODIs. He has 6143 runs as captain and will overcome Stephen Fleming’s aggregate of 6295 runs if he gets those runs. Ricky Ponting is the all-time highest run-getter as captain in ODIs with 8497 runs.
  6. If Ambatti Rayudu scores 48 runs in his next inning he will complete 1000 ODI runs in 29 innings becoming the joint fourth quickest Indian to the milestone. The fastest Indians to the milestone of 1000 ODI runs are Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan in 24 innings each, the next being Navjot Sidhu in 25 innings and MS Dhoni in 29 innings.
  7. Amit Mishra needs five more wickets to complete 50 ODI wickets. He has 45 wickets in 27 ODI matches having made his ODI debut more than 12 years ago in 2003. If he can pick up five wickets in his first ODI of the series he will be second fastest Indian to 50 ODI wickets in 28 matches behind Ajit Agarkar. If he does in two innings he will be joint second fastest with Mohammed Shami who took his 50th wicket in 29th ODI match.
  8. Virat Kohli needs three centuries in this ODI series to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s 25 ODI centuries before the age of 27. Kohli has 22 100s in 153 innings and he will turn 27 when the first Test match is played. Sachin Tendulkar scored 25 100s in 239 innings before his 27th birthday. Quite a difficult task for him as no Indian has scored more than two centuries in any bilateral ODI series.
  9. Virat Kohli needs just one more century in a successful chase to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 14 ODI 100s in wins while chasing. Tendulkar scored 14 100s in successful chases in 124 innings while Kohli has 13 in just 56 innings.
  10. The first ODI will be Ravichandran Ashwin’s 100th ODI match of his career. He will become the 33rd player in 100 or more ODIs for India. Interestingly, Harbhajan Singh is the only Indian pure off-spinner to play in 100 or more ODIs. Ashwin will become second.

These are few probable milestones to aim for. But in the present day cricket, any new record can be created. In the last two years (2013 and 2014), Rohit Sharma smashed two double centuries in almost the same time period and maybe we can see another.

Let’s wait and watch!