Proteas' home dominance versus India's slow rise: Has the South African press been over-aggressive?

Debating India's No 1 spot: What the South African press says

"South Africa out-thought, out-fought, out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded Test cricket’s No 1 Test team here over four and a bit days."

The above is a report from a Pretoria newspaper published on January 17, 2018, after the hosts won the second Test and with it the Test series. The report is titled, "Proteas revenge over India even sweeter on difficult Centurion pitch."

The first line seems accurate enough but as one reads further one cannot help noticing the aggressive and rather defiant nature of the report.

"The South Africans had been waiting on this series for more than two years, to gain revenge for the 3-0 loss in India, on pitches - certainly in two of the Tests that spun viciously and in the case of Nagpur was described as poor by the International Cricket Council."

Alas, just a few days after this article was written, the Wanderers pitch was rated "poor" by the ICC and almost led to an abandonment. Funnily enough, the home side seemed to be more perturbed about the state of the wicket than the visitors.

No 1 in Tests and ODIs: Can they maintain the winning streak?

The report goes on to say, "Worldwide too, there is the feeling that India’s No 1 ranking has been achieved because they’ve played at home almost exclusively."

"India’s world record-equaling run of nine consecutive Test series wins was achieved with seven of those series’ being played at home - the other two wins came in Sri Lanka and the West Indies in conditions very similar to what India has at home."

The article starts off lauding the home team for beating "Test cricket's No 1 team" and then goes on to argue that the same team, in their opinion (and allegedly the "rest of the world's" as well) does not really deserve to be on top of the heap!

The last paragraph of the article reads, "India has not won a Test series in South Africa or Australia, where they tour later in the year, ever. In this country, they have won just two out of 19 Tests across 26 years. Kohli joins a long list of great players from that country who has led teams that have failed here. Given the optimism he had, the belief, this is a loss that will hurt - a lot."

The elation of the hosts did not last long as India beat South Africa comprehensively in the one-day series, something the Proteas would not have expected in the least following the euphoria of the Test series.

To get a better perspective on how historic India's win in the ODI and T20 series is, let's read up another snippet from an article published in 2010-11 during the Indian tour to South Africa under MS Dhoni.