Team India has started the ODI series against South African with a comprehensive six-wicket win at Kingsmead in the first of the six games with the help of Virat Kohli’s 33rd ODI century. Opting to bat, the Proteas gave a target of 270 runs to India despite losing half of their side for 134. Skipper Faf du Plessis was the sheet anchor, scoring his ninth ODI ton (120) and putting up crucial partnerships with Chris Morris and Andile Phehlukwayo.

The wrist spin duo of India – Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal scalped 5 wickets between them in their quota of 20 overs by conceding just 79 runs. In response, India lost both the openers for 67, but the 189-run third wicket partnership between Virat Kohli (112) and Ajinkya Rahane (79) made sure that the visitors go over the line pretty comfortably with 27 balls to spare.

Stats highlights from the series opener in Kingsmead, Durban:

• Ahead of the Durban ODI, the hosts were undefeated at home from past 17 successive ODI, it was the longest such streak for any side at home in ODI history. The quest started when they had defeated England 3-2 in 2016 followed by a win in one-off ODI against Ireland and whitewashes over Australia (5-0), Sri Lanka (5-0) and Bangladesh (3-0).
• 270 is the second highest target chased down successfully by India in South Africa after the epic India-Pakistan World Cup encounter in Centurion in 2003, where they chased down 274. It was the highest successful chase by any visiting team against South Africa in Durban, surpassing 268 by Australia in 2002.
• Team India defeated the Proteas for the first time at the Kingsmead, as they have lost six of the previous seven. The last three defeats were of margins 157 runs, 135 runs and 134 runs.
• In his captaincy career of 41 innings, Virat has amassed 11 centuries and equaled the record of Sourav Ganguly in 142 innings. Among ODI skippers, only Ricky Ponting (22) and AB de Villiers (13) have reached the three figures more often than Kohli.
• Kohli has now registered centuries in 9 countries and this was his first ODI century in 12 ODIs in South Africa, going past the previous highest of 87* in Port Elizabeth in 2011. He now has at least one century in each of the nine countries he played at least an ODI in, including centuries in nine of the ten oldest Test-playing nations (barring in Pakistan, where he is yet to play a match).

Virat Kohli’s ODI record in each Test playing nation:

• In the history of ODI cricket, it was only the 4th incidence when both captains scoring hundreds in the same ODI, all of them have come after 2013. Three of the four instances involved India and all the three times they were scored by Kohli.

Instances of both the skipper scoring centuries in the same ODI:

• Rahane scored his 5th consecutive 50+ ODI score, as his last five innings reading 55, 70, 53, 61 and 79 (last). He became the third Indian batsman to do so, emulating Sachin Tendulkar (in 1994) and Kohli (in 2012 and in 2013).
• 189 by Kohli and Rahane is the highest third-wicket partnership for India against South Africa in ODIs, surpassing 158 between Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in Belfast in 2007. It is also the best third-wicket stand at Kingsmead, bettering the 136-run stand between the Pakistan duo of Ijaz Ahmed and Saleem Malik in 1994.

Highest partnerships for India in South Africa:

• 3 successive century stands between Virat and Rahane for the third wicket, to go with 104 against South Africa in Chennai in 2015 and 109 against Australia in Melbourne in 2016. The only other Indian pair with three consecutive century stands for a wicket is Rohit Sharma and Rahane when they hit 139, 106, 124 opening the batting against Australia last year.
• 3/34 – the best innings figures for Kuldeep Yadav. It was the fifth time in his short career of 14 ODIs where he picked three wickets in an innings. It is the joint second-best for an Indian spinner against South Africa in South Africa after Harbhajan Singh’s 3 for 27 in Centurion in 2001.
• 120 by Du Plessis is the highest by a South African captain at home against India, eclipsing AB de Villiers’ 109 at the Centurion Park in 2013. It was Du Plessis’ second ODI hundred at Kingsmead, with the last coming exactly a year ago against Sri Lanka when he hit 105.