South Africa staged an incredible comeback to win the five-match ODI series 3-2 after having been down 0-2 following the first two ODIs. Captain, AB de Villiers was the hero for the Proteas as he scored his 24th ODI hundred and ensured he was there till the end to guide the home side to a five-wicket win.
After having been 166/5, it seemed like England would snatch a win and go on to win the series. However, David Wiese gave excellent support to his captain as their 71-run unbeaten partnership gave South Africa an easy win with 6 overs to go.
Here are the major stats from a record-breaking series comeback:
1 – The number of runs scored by Jos Buttler in the last three innings. In the four innings before that, Buttler had scored 318 runs that included two centuries.
2 – South Africa is the only side to make a comeback from 0-2 down in an ODI series to come back and win the series. They previously did it in 2003 against Pakistan.
3 – Only three batsmen have scored 50-plus scores in all five games of a five-match ODI series. Alex Hales did it for England in this series while Yasir Hameed (Pakistan) did it against New Zealand in 2003-04 and Kane Williamson (New Zealand) did it against India in 2013-14.
3 – Jos Buttler is the third England wicketkeeper to have two ducks to his name in a bilateral ODI series. Marcus Trescothick did the same against New Zealand in 2001-02 and Matt Prior did it against Australia in 2010-11.
4 – This is only the fourth time that a team that was 0-2 down in an ODI series went on to win the series. South Africa did the same against Pakistan in 2003, Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in 2005 and Pakistan did it against India in 2005.
4 – Four centuries in this series were in a losing cause. This is the second highest after there were seven centuries that were in a losing cause in the 2016 Australia-India ODI series.
5 – Only five times has an England batsman scored five consecutive 50-plus scores in ODIs. Alex Hales was the fifth batsman to achieve the feat for England. Geoffrey Boycott in 1979, Graham Gooch during 1982-85, Alec Stewart in 2000 and Jonathan Trott in 2009-10 were the other batsmen to achieve the same feat.
5 – South Africa have won five ODI matches against England in Cape Town. South Africa's win-loss record in Cape Town is an outstanding 26-5.
11 – The number of ODI century partnerships between Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. They have now equalled the South African record; Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith had 11 century stands with each other.
12.80 – Eoin Morgan's batting average in this series. This is the second lowest by an England captain in an ODI series/tournament where at least five innings were played. Michael Vaughan had an average of 9.40 in five innings in the 2004 NatWest Series.
81.45 – The batting average partnership between Hashim Amal and AB de Villiers in ODIs. Among pairs who have scored at least 1000 partnership runs, Amla and de Villiers have the highest average.
100 – AB de Villiers scored his 24th century in the fifth ODI. All his 24 centuries have come at a strike rate of more than 100.
383 – The number of runs scored by Alex Hales in the five-match series against South Africa. This is the highest by an English batsman in a bilateral ODI series of five or fewer matches. Hales scored four fifties and one century. Joe Root with 351 runs was the second highest run-getter in the series.