South African Sports News – 7 April

Katlego Mphela

Bafana return home in good shape
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is con­fid­ent that his team’s pre­par­a­tions for the upcom­ing World Cup in June are going well des­pite Bafana going down 2–1 to Brazilian league side Santos on Saturday in the final match of their Brazilian train­ing camp. The camp star­ted on Sunday, March 7 and ended with the loss to Santos over the week­end, but on the whole Bafana got the bet­ter of their oppos­i­tion win­ning four games, draw­ing three and los­ing just one dur­ing their four week stay in the South American coun­try. Continued

South African Sports News – 10 March

Schalk Burger

Schalk leads Stormers to impress­ive vic­tory
The Vodacom Stormers looked very much like poten­tial Super 14 semi-finalists when they demol­ished the Highlanders 33–0 at Newlands on Saturday even­ing. The Cape out­fit ran in four tries without reply and earned a bonus point in the last minute of the game when they dot­ted down for the final try to make up for the log point that was missed when they failed to hold on for the draw against the Brumbies the pre­vi­ous week.

It was a com­mand­ing per­form­ance from the Stormers, who were bril­liantly led by Schalk Burger (pic­tured) until he was replaced late in the game. They were 16–0 up at half time, and although they had to wait until the 60^th minute before scor­ing their second try, they more than deserved their bonus point and could eas­ily have scored more tries had they not been let down by poor fin­ish­ing ... Continued

South African Sports News – 3 March

AB de Villiers

Proteas win the war, but lose the battle
Although the Proteas thumped India by 90 runs in the third and final One Day International (ODI) in Ahmedabad on Saturday, it was a bit­ter­sweet vic­tory for the South Africans who ulti­mately ended up los­ing the series 2–1 to go with their 1–1 draw in the Test series. Batting first on a flat wicket, Jacques Kallis’ men pos­ted an impos­ing 365/2 off their allot­ted 50 overs with Kallis (104 not out off 94 balls) and man of the match AB de Villiers (102 not out off 59 balls) in sub­lime form ... Continued

South African Sports News – 24 February

Wayne Parnell

Late rally not enough as South Africa lose by one run
The Proteas lost their second con­sec­ut­ive match against India when they went down by a single run to the home side in the first One Day International (ODI) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday. The agon­ising defeat came just four days after their innings and 57 run loss to the same oppon­ents in the second test match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, and was a bit­ter pill to swal­low for Jacques Kallis’ men.

Chasing a daunt­ing vic­tory tar­get of 299 at a rate of 5.98 to the over the Proteas were dis­missed for 297 when Wayne Parnell (pic­tured centre) was run out by Shanthakumaran Sreesanth off the last ball of the innings. Parnell and fel­low ‘tai­lender’ Dale Steyn bat­ted superbly to take South Africa to the brink of vic­tory, but in the end it was to no avail as the cour­ageous duo per­ished in the final over ... Continued

South African Sports News – 17 February

Alviro Petersen

Proteas on the ropes in Kolkata
Just when every­one thought the Proteas were back to their win­ning ways after their con­vin­cing innings and six run vic­tory over India in Nagpur last week, a famil­iar weak­ness returned to haunt them in the second test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata yes­ter­day. The Proteas found them­selves with their backs to the wall on six without loss in their second innings at stumps on day three and have to bat for two full days to save the match after trail­ing by a mam­moth 347 runs on the first innings.

There is cer­tainly no way that Graeme Smith’s men can win this match after a hor­rendous first innings bat­ting col­lapse which saw them crash from a prom­ising 218/2 to a dis­mal 296 all out. It was an all to famil­iar occur­rence for the South Africans who have suffered sim­ilar col­lapses in the past, most recently their meek capit­u­la­tion against England in last December’s Durban test ... Continued

South African Sports News – 10 February

Dale Steyn

Proteas crush India in just four days
India made a vali­ant effort to stave off an innings defeat against South Africa in the first test at Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur yes­ter­day, but in the end it was to no avail as they crashed to an innings-and-six run defeat. The Proteas’ win was set up by a mam­moth 340-run third wicket, first innings part­ner­ship between Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis, which knocked the stuff­ing out of the home side.

Amla even­tu­ally car­ried his bat through the innings to fin­ish on a bril­liant 253 not out, which came off 473 balls and included 22 fours. Kallis weighed in with 173 runs (15 fours and two sixes) off 351 deliv­er­ies although he must have been dis­ap­poin­ted at not going on to score that elu­sive double ton. There were also use­ful con­tri­bu­tions from AB de Villiers (53) and Mark Boucher (39) to help the Proteas to 558/6 declared off 176 overs ... Continued

Rugby Festival at Green Point Stadium (photos)

A few pho­to­graphs of the Green Point Stadium (now offi­cially called the Cape Town Stadium) taken on Saturday 6^th February at the Rugby Festival. The Stormers won 47–13 after lead­ing 18–13 at half­time ... Continued

South African Sports News – 3 February

Graeme Smith

Proteas ready for mighty India
The Proteas opened their tour of India yes­ter­day with a prac­tice match ahead of their quest to unseat the hosts as the premier test nation. The tour­ists are tak­ing on the Indian board president’s XI in a two-day match in Nagpur before the first test begins at the new Vidarbha Cricket Association ground on the out­skirts of the city on Saturday.

The two-test series – the second test will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata from February 14 – could be one of the most import­ant the Proteas have played in recent times. The num­ber two ranked South Africans need a 2–0 series win to dis­lodge India from the top spot. A 1–0 res­ult in favour of the tour­ists will leave both teams level on 123 rat­ing points. Continued

South African Sports News – 27 January

Mickey Arthur

Mickey calls it quits
Proteas’ coach Mickey Arthur (pic­tured) has resigned. The shock­ing news was leaked to the media on Monday and although Arthur’s resig­na­tion has still to be made offi­cial, it has been con­firmed by reli­able sources. It is believed that Arthur and Proteas’ cap­tain Graeme Smith have been at log­ger­heads for some time and the res­ult is that their rela­tion­ship has broken down completely.

The depar­ture of Arthur has come at a dif­fi­cult time for the Proteas who leave these shores on Saturday for a demand­ing tour of India, which con­sists of two tests and three one-day inter­na­tion­als (ODI’s). It has been learned that former South African pace bowler Corrie van Zyl is likely to be appoin­ted as care­taker coach for the tour of India. Continued

South African Sports News – 20 January

JP Duminy

Proteas finally get it right
Paceman Morne Morkel grabbed four wick­ets to guide South Africa to vic­tory by an innings and 74 runs over England as the home side squared the series on the fourth day of the fourth Castle test match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday.

The tower­ing Morkel fin­ished with the impress­ive fig­ures of 4/59 off 16 overs as the vis­it­ors were dis­missed for 169 just before the lunch inter­val. The res­ult means that the Castle test series ends 1–1 and South Africa there­fore keep the Basil D’Oliveira Trophy. Paul Collingwood was the only England bats­man to pose a threat to the Proteas’ bowl­ers as the right-hander put together a superb 71 off 88 deliv­er­ies, which included 12 bound­ar­ies and a glor­i­ous six. Continued

South African Sports News – 13 January

Morne Morkel

Proteas come up short again
Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell helped England to an improb­able draw in the third test against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town last Thursday. England now leads the series 1–0 with only one test remaining.

However, a sud­den bat­ting col­lapse after tea trans­formed the con­test from a dull and life­less encounter into a nail biter. England had lost nine wick­ets at the end of the match, with their final pair hav­ing to stave off the last 17 balls to earn a draw. This is the third time in less than a year that England have been nine wick­ets down on the last day and still man­aged to get a draw. One of those occa­sions was the open­ing test of this series, and South Africa will be gut­ted to have twice come so close to get­ting a win ... Continued