Final Frontier? Hmm..

When Steve Waugh called India as the 'Final Frontier' prior to the 2001 series,it indeed made sense because Australia then had conquered every Test nation,winning Tests series in all countries,except in India during the 1990s;apart from maintaining an impeccable home record(Not lost a single home series since 1992).
So,all that was left was to win against India in India.(Which,Steve couldn't.)
Now,the media(Beginning with Ten Sports channel) have started hyping the forthcoming India-South Africa series as India's Final Frontier.I find it quite funny,because India is yet to win a series in Australia too! Guess,the reason why it's hyped as India's Final Frontier might be that Australia has become quite a weak team,so winning in South Africa matters more;or maybe they're following the concept of "What's coming next soon,must be promoted as the best thing ever,so that it can attract more eyeballs.:D"
Anyway,this will certainly be the most exciting series of this year;because both the sides have really powerful batting line-up(Sehwag,Dravid,Sachin,Laxman for India;Graeme,Amla,Kallis and deVilliers for South Africa);
the South African team also has the World's best bowler in Dale Steyn;and then,India has Zaheer Khan,who has bowled so well even on flat wickets in recent Tests,the fast bowler has picked most number of wickets for India since 2009,while Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma can be really good if they are in good form and the conditions suit them.
So,why they are expecting India to fare better?
Although India was quite powerful team at home even during 1990s,the series win against Steve Waugh's Australia at home was considered a very great achievement;and suddenly we even started dreaming of India winning more matches Overseas(Something which didn't happen for over a decade.) That was because,the Mark Taylor led Australia was quite powerful,but they more looked like a 'Cut above the rest',and not ruthless;so our wins against them(1998) just showed how good we are at home;not the guys who're going to conquer the world soon.
Whereas,Steve Waugh's side were just bulldozing the Opposition,so ruthless they were that they didn't even spare a dead rubber;and after 15 Consecutive Test wins,they were expected to trash India too,which was already affected by MatchFixing scandal then and suffered a humiliating Home series defeat too against South Africa(2000) and then,the way Laxman and Dravid scripted a miraculous comeback which happened only thrice in Cricket history and a somewhat comfortable win in Chennai; when the bowlers(McGrath,Warne,Gillespie- can't get better) were breathing fire and they had Hayden standing upto Indian bowlers,they didn't even give up while we were chasing a 155 odd in Chennai and that we won both matches despite losing the toss,gave us the belief that we need not rely on 'Other factors' and that the side indeed can come from behind and win under impossible situations.
To an extent,they indeed achieved something better,better than the predecessors,with some 1-2 defeats(Something is better than nothing.:D),then many 1-1 series levels and also few 1-0 Overseas triumphs(Wow!:D) under Ganguly-Dravid captaincy(2001-07).The 2-1 win in Pakistan was the most empathic one,as we won more than one match(:D) and completely outplayed the opposition.
   Then,even under Dhoni's captaincy,so far we've been playing most matches at home.Not often did it happen in the past for us);yet we're expecting them to fare better in South Africa now,why? Simple,because not only did we win 3 matches in a row recently despite losing the toss,on all occasions;we had to chase targets of 200 above and we did it successfully(Something,which happened just 6 times before for India)And not to forget the great 384 run chase,we won with ease.On 3 occasions,we lost 5 wickets before 100(And once,at 15 too) and yet we didn't lose.A Great team won't get into such situations often;but then the Current team is a really good team,which doesn't want to lose even,if some of the players commit blunders.
And that's what makes many believe that India has a good chance to win the Series;I won't mind if it's even 1-0 or 1-1 level;as both are better than what India achieved in the past- A 1-2 loss in 2006-07(Despite having an edge in the 3rd Test,failing to score real big on a Flat Capetown pitch-414 isn't that big anymore.); no wins in previous 3 series(India had a Golden chance to win Johannesburg test in 1997,when Dravid struck a good 100+;rain on last day screwed it!:X)