The date, 10th November will be remained memorable for the world of cricket due to there introduction of South Africa and India played a key role in that.
10th November 1991 was a very emotional day. After missing out on what could be a glittering international career Clive Rice finally was able to represent his native South Africa as after a ban of 21 years, South Africa finally returned to the international cricket fold. After the 1970 tour of the Australian team, South Africa was thrown out of ICC due to apartheid and like Rice, many wonderful cricketers had to show their talent only in County cricket and in those matches as part
of various rebel tours. But things were slowly changing and when Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in Prison in 1990 that started to change the thinking of the world towards South Africa.
Finally, they were back and Rice rightfully led a team of some exciting players including Kepler Wessels, Peter Kirsten, Brian McMillan, and Allan Donald for a hastily arranged three-match ODI tour in India. Interestingly, South Africa never played a Test match against India earlier due to their policy as well but this time it was clearly visible that the times were changing.
The venue of South Africa’s first-ever One Day International was the historic Eden Gardens and The crowd responded brilliantly. The South Africans got an excellent welcome at the airport and the ground was absolutely full on the day of the match.
It was an interesting match too. Once South Africa set a target of 178 for the Indians not many people thought this would be difficult for India. However, Donald had a different plan. He announced himself to the world and reduced India to 20/3 in his first spell. But then Sachin Tendulkar, the upcoming star at that stage showed his class with a magnificent 62 and was ably supported by Pravin Amre who scored 55 on debut. Donald got both of them out and shared the Man-of-the-Match with Sachin Tendulkar for his 5/29. India won the match by 3 wickets. But on such a special day the result was never a priority which was brilliantly exclaimed by Rice who spoke for almost everyone in his team, “I know how Neil Armstrong felt when he stood on the moon”.
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