Virat Kohli closing in on Tendulkar! Players with most runs in India vs South Africa ODIs

Aakash Saini

Most runs in India vs South Africa ODI history [Source: @ICC/x]Most runs in India vs South Africa ODI history [Source: @ICC/x]

Some cricket rivalries sharpen the skills of certain individuals, demanding precision every time the two sides meet. In India vs South Africa ODIs, a few batters have consistently stood out, rising to the challenge of world-class attacks to produce defining performances across eras.

Across decades of India vs South Africa ODI cricket, here is a look at five of the highest run-makers in the format whenever these two sides have met.

5. AB de Villiers – 1,357 runs

Among all players in India vs South Africa ODI matches with more than 250 runs, let alone 1,357 of them; no batter has scored his runs even remotely close to the strike rate of 111.13. Former South African captain and explosive middle-order batter AB de Villiers seemed to enjoy making a mockery of Indian bowlers, especially in ODIs, as holds an average of 48.46 against them.

He got six hundreds against India, including three in a single series from 2015, where he minted 358 runs at a surreal average of 89.50. Overall, AB de Villiers played 32 ODI matches against India for his 1,357 runs, and crossed the 50-run mark on 11 occasions.

4. Gary Kirsten – 1,377 runs

Before lifting the 2011 World Cup as an India coach, Gary Kirsten traumatized Indian bowlers in nearly all his 26 ODIs against them between the years 1995 to 2001. The legendary left-handed opening batter aggregated 1,377 runs at a prolific average of 62.59, clocking over 1.5 times than his career ODI average of 40.95.

Gary Kirsten made four hundreds and nine half-centuries against Team India, with his magnum opus being the 133* he smacked in Johannesburg back in October 2001 in the opening match of the 2001 South Africa ODI tri-series.


3. Virat Kohli – 1,504 runs

Indian run-machine Virat Kohli produced 1,504 runs against South Africa in 29 ODI innings at a high-volume average of 65.39, the highest among all India vs South Africa ODI players with more than 300 runs to their names. The legendary right-handed batter made 558 of them in a single away series against South Africa back in 2018, where his three match-winning hundreds engineered India’s 5-1 series win. Moreover, Kohli’s 558-run tally from that tour remains the highest aggregate by any batter in a single bilateral series by a landslide.

Overall, Virat Kohli punched out five centuries and eight fifties against South Africa, and maintained a staggering strike rate of 85.74.

2. Jacques Kallis – 1,535 runs

All-time great Jacques Kallis plundered 1,535 ODI runs against India in 34 innings at an average of 61.40. His nine not outs indicate how often he stayed till the end, anchoring innings and finishing games with trademark calmness and control. Out of the 17 hundreds he scored in ODI cricket, Jacques Kallis got two of them in India matches, which included 11 additional scores of 50 or more.

To sum up, Kallis remains South Africa’s most productive ODI batter against India even since a decade of his retirement from the game.

1. Sachin Tendulkar – 2,001 runs

It is only fitting that the world’s most successful ODI batter also happens to be the highest run-maker in India vs South Africa matches. The great Sachin Tendulkar made 2,001 runs against South Africa, nearly 500 runs more than the second-placed player as of now and the only one with over 2,000 runs in this storied rivalry, doing so in 57 ODI innings at an average of 35.73.

His lower average can be attributed to the era he played in, facing world-class attacks on bowler-friendly surfaces long before modern ODI rules tilted heavily in favour of batting. Sachin Tendulkar got five hundreds and eight fifties against South Africa, including one century during their faceoff from the 2011 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in Nagpur.