It was a tough weekend for South African sport, with the Proteas falling short in the Australia vs South Africa T20 series, the Springboks rugby team stunned by the Wallabies in the Rugby Championship, Dricus Du Plessis losing his UFC title at UFC 319, and drama unfolding in the MTN8 semi-finals.
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It was the late show from the BIG SHOW, Glenn Maxwell. The all-rounder steered the Aussies to a narrow two-wicket victory of the penultimate delivery and wrapped up the series win for Australia, 2-1. The Proteas suffered a poor start, losing skipper Aiden Markram in the opening over. However, Dewald Brevis’ struck 53 from 26 balls to help South Africa reach a competitive total of 172. Nathan Ellis (3-31) was the pick of the bowlers for the hosts, while Josh Hazelwood and Adam Zampa picked up two wickets respectively.
In response, the hosts had a solid start with captain Mitchell Marsh leading from the front with 54 from 37, before falling to Mphaka. After a couple quick wickets, Maxwell entered the fray and struck his unbeaten 62 from 36 balls, which included 10 boundaries to clinch the game with one ball to spare, but importantly, wrap up the series 2-1. The Proteas will look to the ODI series to bounce back. The first game takes place on Tuesday in Cairns.
The Rugby Championship kicked off this weekend with Springbok fans expecting the nations green and gold warriors to roll over their opponents. It really looked like it was going to be a mammoth victory for the hosts, but the Wallabies produced a second-half performance that sent shockwaves around the rugby world. Australia broke a 62-year drought in Johannesburg with a thrilling 38-22 win over the world champions. Nobody saw this result coming especially after going 22-0 up after 17 minutes. The visitors touched down in the 25th minute through Dylan Peitch despite hardly having ball-in-hand. This led to the Boks taking a comfortable 22-5 lead at half-time.
However, the Boks failed to score again while trying to play fast and furious rugby, giving away needless penalties and lacking creativity. Australia scored 33 unanswered points as they showed more resilience and composure as compared to their counterparts. Two tries from Harry Wilson, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen and Tom Wright did the damage, while James O Connor was great with his kicking. This was a wake-up call for Coach Rassie Erasmus as the mighty Boks came back down to planet Earth. It will be a case of back to the drawing board as they will attempt to return the favour to the Aussies when they meet next weekend in Cape Town.
South Africans across the globe tuned in to watch UFC 319 as their fierce warrior was in action, defending his title, but he was coming up against an immovable force. Unfortunately for Dricus Du Plessis (DDP), Khamzat Chimaev was well prepared and proved to be too much for the South African, over-powering him with a record number of strikes and several submission attempts to win the UFC Middleweight Championship by unanimous decision.
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The event took place at the almost sold-out United Center where the Russian remained unbeaten at 15-0. What was so impressive about Chimaev’s victory, was the fact he landed 529 strikes in the match, breaking Max Holloway’s UFC record of 447 set in 2021. His plus-484 striking differential also set a record, breaking Holloway’s mark of plus-312 in that same 2021 match against Calvin Klatter.
DDP was on the canvas within the first 10 seconds, and he was on the defensive throughout the match. Du Plessis cane back in the final round, but Khamzat was still in control to see the match out. The South African was humble in defeat and gave credit to Chimaev stating that he was beaten fair and square but vowed to return stronger and reclaim his title.
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Stellenbosch FC edged closer to a spot in the MTN 8 final after they secured a 2-0 semifinal win over Sekhukhune United in the first leg at the Danie Craven Stadium on Saturday. Kazie Enyinnaya and Devin Titus struck in the first half and that was enough to see Steve Barker’s men relax in pole position going into the 2nd leg on August 23rd in Polokwane.
Both teams created many chances in the first period, but it was Stellies who broke the deadlock on 23 minutes when Enyinnaya glanced a header into the left corner of the net from an in-swinging corner to register his first goal for the club. Titus made life tougher for Babina Noko as he latched onto a sublime pass from Lesiba Nku and placed his shot beyond Renaldo Leaner to double Stellies advantage. The second period was a bit cagey, but all the damage was done in the first half. There will be much work to be done by Sekhukhune in the when they walk onto the field in Polokwane
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The mercurial Brazilians claimed that bad decision making and being too emotional is what led to their 1-1 draw against the Sea Robbers. Tebeho Mokoena headed Sundowns into the lead, but failure to build on that allowed Pirates to claim a late equalizer to setup a cracking 2nd leg.
This was a game of two halves, which Sundowns will feel was there for the taking but will now hope they can produce that same performance next weekend but also see that performance run through the entire game. Kamogelo Seblebele’s pace in the 87th minute was enough to grab the all-important equalizer. His awareness and tenacity allowed him to speed down the right-hand side and beat Ronwen Williams.
With the momentum with the Sea Robbers, they pressed forward for a potential winner but could not create one, leaving the two sides level going into the second leg at Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville next Saturday.
