Stats: India's home misery, Harmer's heroics, and Markram's record feat

All the stats highlights from South Africa's monumental win over India in the second Test in Guwahati.

India's misery at home continues

3 - This was just the third clean-sweep suffered by India at home, after they'd gone down 0-2 against the same opponents in 2000 and 0-3 against New Zealand last year.

5 - India have now lost five of their last seven home Tests; their previous five home defeats had spanned across 50 Tests and 13 seasons.

2 - This was their second defeat in successive seasons at home. They had lost only two home series post the 0-2 drubbing to SA in 2000 until the New Zealand series last year: against Australia in 2004 and against England in 2012.

The last time India lost two Test series at home across two consecutive years was over four decades ago: against West Indies in 1983 and against England in 1984/85.

408 runs happens to be India's biggest ever defeat-margin in terms of runs, surpassing 342 against Australia in Nagpur in 2004. It is also the second biggest victory margin for South Africa, after their 492-run win against Australia in Johannesburg in 2018.

It was just the second time that India were set a 500-plus target in a home Test, after the aforementioned 2004 Nagpur Test.

Biggest defeat margins for India in Tests (by runs)

India's batting struggles

0 - No individual hundred was scored for India in these two games, their third such instance at home in a minimum two-Test series, the previous two coming against New Zealand in 1969/70 and 1995/96 respectively.

15.23 - India batters collectively averaged 15.23 across the series, the second-lowest for them in any Test series, after 12.42 on the 2002/03 New Zealand tour. The 1969/70 home series against New Zealand stands third in this list at 15.96.

4 - This was just the fourth instance that India didn't manage to go past 250 even once in a bilateral Test series (min. 2 matches). The previous three had all come on tours: in New Zealand in 2002/03 (highest: 161) and 2019/20 (highest: 242); and in South Africa in 2023/24 (highest: 245). Their lowest highest team total in a home Test series previously was also against South Africa: 250 in Bengaluru in 2000.

Harmer spins a web

27 wickets to Simon Harmer in India is now the most for any South Africa bowler, one more than Dale Steyn. His 17 wickets in the series are also the most for South Africa on an India tour, going past Steyn's 15 in 2008.

15.03 - Harmer's bowling average in India is the best among the 109 bowlers to have bagged a minimum 20 wickets in the country, as is his strike-rate of 36.1.

8.94 - Harmer averaged 8.94 across these two Tests. There have been over 500 instances of a bowler bagging a minimum of 15 wickets in an away Test series post World War II, and of those only Courney Walsh - 16 wickets at 8.25 in New Zealand in 1994/95 - did it at a better average. No bowler - Indian or overseas - has ever taken more wickets at a better average in a Test series in India.

Harmer in Tests in India

9/101 - Harmer's returns across the two innings in Guwahati are the second best for the Proteas in India, after Steyn's 10/108 in Nagpur in 2010 - their last win in the country before the start of this series. Harmer's 8/51 in the first Test in Kolkata ranks third in this list.

His 6/37 in the second innings are the third-best bowling returns for South Africa in India, behind Lance Klusener's 8/64 in Kolkata in 1996 and Steyn's 7/51 in Nagpur in 2010.

Bavuma's South Africa extend an imperious run

11 wins for Temba Bavuma is the most for anyone in his first 12 Tests as captain, one more than Ben Stokes and Lindsay Hassett. Bavuma's only miss so far was the rain-affected drawn game at Port of Spain last year in a run that included the historic World Test Championship 2025 triumph at Lord's earlier this year.

2 - This was South Africa's second Test series win in India after their 2-0 sweep in February-March 2000 under Hansie Cronje.

5 - South Africa have won five of their last six Tests in Asia. They had beaten Bangladesh 2-0 last year and drew 1-1 in Pakistan heading into this series. Notably, they had lost 10 of the 13 Tests in the subcontinent between 2015 and the start of this run, the other three ending in draws.

Markram's world-record feat

9 - Aiden Markram bagged nine catches in the game, the most by a non-wicketkeeper in a Test match ever, surpassing eight by Ajinkya Rahane against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2015.

5 - He pouched five catches in the first innings, a joint-record in a Test innings alongside 16 other instances, and matched only by Graeme Smith (vs Australia, Perth, 2012) among South Africa players.

Jansen stands tall in a historic result

7 sixes for Jansen during his 93-run knock on Day 2 is the joint-most for South Africa in a Test innings, alongside as many for AB de Villiers against Australia (Cape Town, 2009) and Quinton de Kock against West Indies (Gros Islet, 2021).

11 - He became the 11th player to be dismissed in the nervous nineties while batting from No.9 or lower in Tests, the first for South Africa, and the second against India, after Mitchell Starc was dismissed for 99 in Mohali in 2013.

Jansen later bagged 6/48 with the ball, becoming just the third left-arm quick to bag a Test five-fer in India since 1988, after Zaheer Khan (thrice) and Mitchell Johnson (Mohali, 2010), the latter being the last such instance before this game. All those six wickets came via the short-pitched balls, more on that below.

4 instances of a seamer bagging six wickets with short-balls (back-of-a-length or shorter) in a Test innings since the start of the 2006 English summer (where ball-by-ball data is available). Neil Wagner did that twice in the time frame: against Australia in Christchurch in 2016 and against West Indies in Wellington in 2017. Only two other bowlers bagged five wickets with short-pitched balls in a Test innings in Asia in the timeframe: Yasir Arafat against India (Bengaluru, 2007) and Anrich Nortje against Pakistan (Rawalpindi, 2021).