Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news — 14 September

Cheetahs pip Bulls at the post
The Vodacom Free State Cheetahs pro­duced a ten­a­cious all round per­form­ance to defeat the Vodacom Blue Bulls 20–14 in a pulsat­ing Absa Currie Cup Premier Division encounter in Bloemfontein on Saturday. In an intense battle, the Cheetahs man­aged to with­stand a late Bulls onslaught to secure vic­tory by a slender six-point margin.

However, although the vic­tory mar­gin was undoubtedly a small one there can be no deny­ing the home side deserved their win. Their defence, par­tic­u­larly in the second half, was out­stand­ing and they took their chances on attack when it coun­ted while the Bulls decision-making let them down badly on occasions.

Cheetahs eighth­man Ashley Johnson (pic­tured), who was named ‘Man of the Match’, and mid­fielder Meyer Bosman were par­tic­u­larly effect­ive at the break­down where time and again they thwarted a good Bulls attack by steal­ing the unpro­tec­ted ball at cru­cial stages. The home side signaled their intent to take the game to the vis­it­ors from the out­set when Phillip van der Walt scored one of the quick­est tries in Currie Cup his­tory, dotting down after only 31 seconds.

The kick­off was trans­ferred wide quickly, leav­ing winger Jongi Nokwe with plenty of space on the over­lap, which he used to sprint down­field before send­ing the ball inside to Bosman, who put Van der Walt over the line. The Bulls, to their credit, stormed right back into the game as they secured pos­ses­sion from the next kick­off, took the ball through a num­ber of phases before fling­ing it wide, where left wing Jaco van der Westhuyzen stepped inside Tewis de Bruyn’s tackle to score.

Flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter failed with the con­ver­sion but slot­ted two pen­al­ties to oppos­ite num­ber Louis Strydom’s one as the Bulls edged ahead 11–10 after 30 minutes. However, just when it seemed as though the Bulls were start­ing to build momentum, a bizarre decision by the offi­cials dis­rup­ted the vis­it­ors progress.

Referee Shaun Veldsman referred a Potgieter pen­alty to the TMO des­pite look­ing like it had gone over. The match offi­cial then inex­plic­ably dis­al­lowed the kick much to the frus­tra­tion of the men in blue. It was a strange call to say the least but prob­ably wouldn’t have changed the out­come of the match as the home side always seemed to be one step ahead of the visitors.

The Cheetahs dom­in­ated most of the game in the second half, and while the Bulls defen­ded like tro­jans it was Hendro Scholtz (pic­tured) who finally got his team’s reward for their per­sist­ence when he scored what would be the match-winning try. Potgieter hit back with another pen­alty on 68 minutes to put the Bulls within seven and from then on the vis­it­ors attacked fero­ciously, but it was ulti­mately to no avail as the home side held out for their fourth con­sec­ut­ive victory.

Cheetahs cap­tain Adriaan Strauss was under­stand­ably pleased with his team’s effort. “I’m very proud of the guys, our defence was good and we played well,” he told report­ers after­wards. The men from Bloemfontein now move to third spot on the Currie Cup stand­ings behind the Sharks and Western Province, who both recor­ded vic­tor­ies over the week­end, but their defeat leaves defend­ing cham­pi­ons the Bulls under sig­ni­fic­ant pres­sure, as they dropped to fifth as the sea­son heads into its final stretch.

The Bulls now have a tough game against the fourth placed Lions at Loftus Versfeld next week and the res­ult could well define their Currie Cup defence while the Cheetahs will travel to Durban to face the Sharks in an equally import­ant fix­ture for both teams.

Scorers
Cheetahs 20 – Tries: Phillip van der Walt (pic­tured), Hendro Scholtz. Conversions: Louis Strydom (2). Penalties: Strydom (2).
Blue Bulls 14 – Try: Jaco van der Westhuyzen. Penalties: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (3).

Other res­ults (from left to right)
Friday
Sharks 30 – Pumas 14 – Puma Stadium, Witbank

Saturday
Lions 40 – Griquas 29 – Coca-Cola Park Stadium, Johannesburg
Western Province 59 –Leopards 17 – Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

Upcoming fix­tures
Friday
Griquas vs Leopards – GWK Park, Kimberley
Pumas vs Western Province – Puma Stadium, Witbank – 7.10pm
Saturday
Sharks vs Cheetahs – The Absa Stadium, Durban – 3pm
Bulls vs Lions – Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria – 5.05pm

Currie Cup log (After 10 games)
Pos  Team      Pts
1.    Sharks       41
2.    WP            33
3.    Cheetahs   32
4.    Lions         30
5.    Bulls          29
6.    Griquas      25
7.    Pumas       17
8.    Leopards     5

Stalemate for Ajax and Swallows in MTN8 semi
Ajax Cape Town and Moroka Swallows played to a goal­less draw in a lively first leg MTN8 semi-final encounter at Athlone on Sunday after­noon. The Cape out­fit will now travel to Johannesburg in two weeks time for the second leg against a Birds side that would have taken con­fid­ence from their away draw.

Both teams tried hard to score goals in a rel­at­ively enter­tain­ing game but just could not pen­et­rate each other’s defences in the 90 minutes. The Urban Warriors undoubtedly had the bet­ter of the pro­ceed­ings and would be dis­ap­poin­ted with their inab­il­ity to take any of the goal-scoring oppor­tun­it­ies that came their way.

The first half was played at a fast pace, with Ajax per­haps the mar­gin­ally stronger side. The Cape team looked pol­ished and on form early on, pro­du­cing some slick passing moves and dom­in­at­ing pos­ses­sion. However, Swallows had the first oppor­tun­ity to score when Ashraf Hendricks (pic­tured) found him­self unmarked for a back-post cross only to head wide of goal.

Terror Fanteni, who was well sup­por­ted by Thulani Serero, was Ajax’s most potent threat in attack, but both play­ers struggled to find the tar­get with their shots, des­pite some good inter­play between the two. Fanteni had a per­fect scor­ing chance in the 30^th minute when he found some space, but from 20 metres out his shot lacked the power to beat Birds ‘keeper, Aubrey Mathibe.

Three minutes later Swallows striker Oscar Machapa found the back of the net, but the goal was dis­al­lowed for off-side. The Urban Warriors again looked the more threat­en­ing team in the second half and looked to have scored in the 52^nd minute, but Clayton Daniels was ruled to be in an off-side pos­i­tion as he drove in Granwald Scott’s free kick.

Scott him­self looked to get on the score-sheet in the 78^th minute, but his well flighted free kick wasn’t good enough to beat Mathibe (pic­tured). Four minutes later Daniels came within inches of put­ting Ajax ahead when his header struck the base of the upright, but it was not to be on a frus­trat­ing after­noon for the Urban Warriors.

Meanwhile, the other MTN8 first leg semi-final between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs played at the FNB sta­dium on Saturday night also ended in a draw – although not a goal­less one. Pirates mid­field dynamo Francis Chansa opened the scor­ing in the 47^th minute when he slot­ted home from a corner but his effort was can­celled out when Knowledge Musona found the back of the net for Chiefs 13 minutes later. Both teams will clash again at the FNB sta­dium in two weeks time for the second leg of the semi-final.

Other foot­ball res­ults (Absa Premiership)
Wednesday, September 8
Golden Arrows 2 – Vasco Da Gama 0 – Chatsworth Stadium
Platinum Stars 0 – Mamelodi Sundowns 2 – Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Bloem Celtic 3 – AmaZulu 1 – Seisa Ramabodu Stadium
SuperSport Utd 2 – Aces 1 – Super Stadium
Santos 2 – Bidvest Wits 1 – Athlone Stadium
Moroka Swallows 2 – Ajax Cape Town 3 – Dobsonville Stadium
Orlando Pirates 0 – Free State Stars 0 – Orlando Stadium
Maritzburg Utd 1 – Kaizer Chiefs 1 – Harry Gwala Stadium

Upcoming Absa Premiership fix­tures
Friday
Maritzburg Utd vs Golden Arrows – Harry Gwala Stadium – 8pm
Ajax Cape Town vs Platinum Stars – Cape Town Stadium – 8pm
Saturday
Free State Stars vs Vasco Da Gama – Charles Mopeli Stadium – 3pm
Bidvest Wits vs Orlando Pirates – Bidvest Stadium – 3pm
Kaizer Chiefs vs Bloem Celtic – Rand Stadium – 8.15pm
Mamelodi Sundowns vs SuperSport Utd – HM Pitje Stadium – 8.15pm
Sunday
AmaZulu vs Swallows – Moses Mabhida Stadium – 3pm
Black Aces vs Santos – Puma Stadium – 3pm

Skipper Jacobs sets up easy win for Warriors
A fine knock by Davey Jacobs (pic­tured) helped the Chevrolet Warriors to a com­fort­able 28-run vic­tory over the Victoria Bushrangers in their Champions League Twenty20 match at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth yes­ter­day even­ing. Batting first, the Warriors amassed a use­ful 158/6 thanks mainly in part to Jacobs and wick­et­keeper Mark Boucher who weighed in with a use­ful 31 off 28 balls.

The 27-year-old Jacobs, open­ing the innings with Ashwell Prince, got his side off to a per­fect start as he raced to 59 before being need­lessly run out after Prince attemp­ted a run that was never on. The Warriors cap­tain struck nine fours and one six dur­ing his 39 ball innings and shared in a first wicket stand of 81 with the left handed Prince who fell just two runs later after being caught by ‘keeper Matthew Wade off the bowl­ing of medium pacer Andrew McDonald for 16. The Bushrangers enjoyed fur­ther suc­cess when Colin Ingram depar­ted for just eight and it was left to Boucher (31 off 28) and Johan Botha (20 off 14) to get the Warriors to a cred­ible 158/6 off their alloted 20 overs. McDonald with 2/22 off four overs was the pick of the Bushrangers bowlers.

In reply the vis­it­ors could only muster a mod­est 130/9 with only David Hussey (29 off 27) and Aaron Finch (25 off 20) look­ing threat­en­ing. But when Australian inter­na­tional Hussey had his leg stump uprooted by medium pacer Justin Kreusch to reduce the Bushrangers to 94/4, it her­al­ded a dra­matic bat­ting col­lapse which saw the vis­it­ors lose their next five wick­ets for the addi­tion of just 11 runs.

In fact, had it not been for the efforts of Shane Harwood, com­ing in at num­ber 10, the Bushrangers could well have lost by a much big­ger mar­gin. Harwood weighed in with an unbeaten 17 off 13 deliv­er­ies to help the vis­it­ors to their even­tual total. Flame-haired seamer Rusty Theron (pic­tured left) was out­stand­ing with the ball for the Warriors, snar­ing 3/22 off his four overs and was well sup­por­ted by vet­eran pace­man Makhaya Ntini who bagged 2/33.

The win was the Warriors’ second in three days after they beat the Wayamba Elevens by seven wick­ets on Saturday. Jacobs’ men will face the Central Stags in their next Champions League out­ing at the same venue on Saturday. The match gets under­way at 1.30pm.

Other res­ults (SA teams in bold)
Friday, September 10
Highveld Lions beat the Mumbai Indians by nine runs
Saturday, September 11
Chevrolet Warriors beat the Wayamba Elevens by seven wick­ets
Chennai Super Kings beat the Central Stags by 57 runs
Sunday, September 12
South Australian Redbacks beat the Highveld Lions by 11 runs
Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Guyana by nine wickets

Upcoming fix­tures (SA teams in bold)
Today
Mumbai Indians vs South Australian Redbacks – Durban – 5.30pm
Tomorrow
Victorian Bushrangers vs Central Stags – Centurion – 1.30pm
Chennai Super Kings vs Wayamba Elevens – 5.30pm
Thursday
Mumbai Indians vs Guyana – Durban – 5.30pm
Friday
South Australian Redbacks vs Royal Challengers Bangalore – Durban – 5.30pm
Saturday
Chevrolet Warriors vs Central Stags – Port Elizabeth – 1.30pm
Chennai Super Kings vs Victorian Bushrangers – Port Elizabeth – 5.30pm
Sunday
Highveld Lions vs Guyana – Johannesburg – 1.30pm
Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore – Durban – 5.30pm
Monday
Victorian Bushrangers vs Wayamba Elevens – Centurion – 5.30pm

‘Cyclones’ hop­ing to whip up a storm at the Palace
Undefeated World Boxing Federation (WBF) light mid­dle­weight cham­pion Bongani ‘Cyclones’ Mwelase (pic­tured) faces argu­ably the toughest test of his career when he chal­lenges Lovemore Ndou for the veteran’s International Boxing Organisation (IBO) wel­ter­weight title at Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park on Saturday night.

The 28-year-old Mwelase has won 14 con­sec­ut­ive bouts, 12 of them by knock­out, since turn­ing pro in July 2006 with a first round demoli­tion of Lawrence Molemane. Only vet­er­ans Lucky Lewele and Attila Kovacs have man­aged to last the dis­tance with the heavy handed Mwelase who hails from Meadowlands in Gauteng and the young lion will be con­fid­ent of notch­ing up his 15^th straight win on Saturday.

However, Mwelase will have a tough nut to crack in the form of the 39-year-old Ndou who began punch­ing for pay way back in April 1993 win­ning six straight fights before being out poin­ted by Jeremiah Malinga in his sev­enth con­test. ‘The Black Panther’, as Ndou is known, then went on to draw with Mthobeli ‘Hitman’ Mhlope in August 1995 in a bid for the South African super feather­weight title before mov­ing to Australia in 1996 in a bid to secure more fights.

The move did won­ders for his career and even­tu­ally res­ul­ted in Ndou cap­tur­ing the International Boxing Federation (IBF) light wel­ter­weight title in February 2007 when Naoufel Ben Rabah failed to answer the bell for the 12^th and final round. Ndou lost the IBF belt in his first defence to American Paulie Malignaggi but went on to win the IBO strap with a point’s vic­tory over another South African vet­eran, name­sake Phillip ‘Timebomb’ Ndou in July 2009.

A draw with British fighter Matthew Hatton fol­lowed four months later since which Ndou has been inact­ive. However, with an impress­ive record of 47 wins (31 KO’s), 11 losses and two draws against mostly top cal­ibre oppos­i­tion Ndou must surely start as the favour­ite on Saturday. Mwelase, who cap­tured the vacant WBF belt with a unan­im­ous points vic­tory over Kovacs in August 2009, is an aggress­ive come for­ward boxer who fears no man, but he will be facing a wily vet­eran in the form of Ndou who has never been stopped as a professional.

The ‘Black Panther’ has shared a ring with some of the best box­ers in the world includ­ing Malignaggi, Kermit Cintron, Junior Witter and Puerto Rican power­house Miguel Angel Cotto and with a resume like that Ndou will feel he has little to fear from a novice like Mwelase. Saturday’s fight, which prom­ises to be a really inter­est­ing boxer vs puncher match up, will be tele­vised live on SuperSport 1 (SS1) at 7.45pm.

Mokoka is Cross Country king
Stephen Mokoka (pic­tured) cruised to a com­fort­able vic­tory in the senior 12km race at the SA Cross Country Championships held at the Tshwane University of Technology cam­pus on Saturday. Mokoka, a third-year sports man­age­ment stu­dent at the Tshwane University of Technology, clocked an impress­ive 37 min, 32 secs, with Kgosi Tsosane (38:03) and Xolisa Tyali (38:09) fin­ish­ing second and third respectively.

By the start of the second lap, eight com­pet­it­ors were jost­ling for suprem­acy upfront, but Mokoka broke away superbly on the final lap to secure vic­tory. “The two hills on the back sec­tion of the race route really made things tough out there but I am glad to get the win,” said Mokoka, who won the SA 10km cham­pi­on­ship title in Paarl last month.

Malawian Mirriam Thole moved away from Central Gauteng’s Lebogang Phalula with two kilo­metres of the senior women’s 8km race remain­ing, and broke the tape in 29:05. Phalula came second in 29:39 with her twin sis­ter Lebogang third in 30:01.

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Photo Credits:
Photo – Ashley Johnson: Source – www.blog.fscheetahs.co.za
Photo – Hendro Scholtz: Source – www.sportydesktops.com
Photo – Ashraf Hendricks: Source – www.kickoff.com
Photo – Aubrey Mathiba: Source – www.sportydesktops.com
Photo – Davey Jacobs: Source – www.cricinfo.com
Photo – Rusty Theron: Source – www.chevroletwarriors.co.za
Photo – Bongani Mwelase: Source – www.sundayworld.co.za
Photo – Stephen Mokoka: Source – www.mzungofire.blogspot.com