Question: Who has been awarded as the Man of the Series in recently played South Africa- India Test Series?
(a) A.B De Villiers
(b) Ravichadran Ashwin
(c) Hasim Amala
(d) Ravindra Jadeja
Ans (b)
Related facts:
- “Paytm Freedom Trophy” cricket series held between South Africa and India fron 2 October to 7 December 2015.
- This consist of four Tests, five one-day internationals and three Twenty20 games, starting with a T20 game in Dharamsala on October 2.
- In a four matches test series which was played between 5 November and 7 December 2015 in final match of the series India beat South Africa by 337 runs and winning the ‘Paytm Freedom Trophy’ title by a margin of 3-0.
- In the fourth and last match played between 3-7 December, Ajinkya Rahane(India) was declared as Man of the match.
- In 7 innings of the four-match Test series India’s Ravichandran Ashwin got Man of the Series’ for taking highest 31 wickets.
- While the Africa’s highest wicket taker was Imran Tahir (14 wickets).
- The victory of Indian team on Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi by the margin of 337 runs was the biggest win ever on this ground as well as for Indian team against South Africa.
- Ajinkya Rahane(India) the only player to score century in this test series scored two centuries in the two inning of the fourth match (127 runs in the first innings, second innings 100 runs not out) and made 266 runs in 6 innings of the three matches. While South African player AB De Villiers made 258 runs in 7 innings of 4 Matches
- Ajinkya Rahane(India) become the fifth player after Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid after Virat Kohli, who made centuries in both the innings of any test matches.
- In this series Indian and South African team was led by Virat Kohli and Hashim Amla respectively.
- In the last innings of the fourth match team South Africa scored 143 runs in 143.1 overs at the strike rate of 0.99, which is the second slowest inning in the history. Earlier, New Zealand in 1955 scored 26 runs in 27 overs at the strike rate of 0.96 is slowest.
- In the Series South African duo Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers played 175 or more balls at a strike rate of 0.78 and made the record for the slowest partnership in Test cricket.
- This is to be noted that including this all bilateral series that will be played between India and South Africa in future will be known as ‘Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi Series’.
Reference:
http://www.bcci.tv/india-v-south-africa-2015/results
http://www.bcci.tv/india-v-south-africa-2015/stats/most-runs
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-south-africa-2015-16/content/series/903573.html