Gary Lemke looks back at a jam-packed sporting weekend as Liverpool look set to secure the Premier League, Sacha stars for the Stormers, and more!
LIVERPOOL ON BRINK OF TITLE CONFIRMATION
LIverpool could win the English Premier League title this week before they even play, should Crystal Palace beat Arsenal, and a draw basically seals it too, on Wednesday. More likely, beating Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday will do the trick. Liverpool’s 1-0 win at Leicester relegated the Foxes and Ipswich will be the next side through the trapdoor.
Liverpool will win the title, Arsenal in second, and Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton relegated. The fight for the Champions League spots is where it’s at. Five clubs are separated by two points with five games to go – and only three can qualify. Man United can do as well. They lost for a 15th time in 33 League games and are 14th, but can be in the Champions League if they win the Europa League. As a Man United fan, do you laugh or cry?
FERRARI PIT CREW DESERVES PRAISE
While Oscar Piastri continues to show that he, and not world champion Max Verstappen, is likely to be pre-season title favourite Lando Norris’ biggest challenge this Formula One season, Ferrari’s pit crew can take a lot of credit for Charl Leclerc’s podium finish.
Norris led home Verstappen at the Saudi Arabian GP by a deceptively comfortable 2.84sec, while Leclerc held Norris at bay for third by 1.92sec. The Ferrari crew had set the quickest pit stop time of the season when they changed Leclerc’s tires in 2.0sec, with Norris’ stop being 1.50sec slower. Such are the small margins which exist at the highest level of sport.
A 14-YEAR-OLD SMASHING SIXES IN THE IPL. GULP
We’re still averaging 17 sixes a match in the Indian Premier League and one of them was struck by Vaibhav Suryavanshi, opening the batting for the Rajasthan Royals. That’s not the eye-popper here, a first-ball six, even if it was the first ball the player ever faced in his IPL career. He turned 14 less than a month ago. He has 20 balls in scoring 34 before being stumped off Aiden Markram.
That’s all just detail. Suryavanshi has only just turned 14. He hit a 58-ball hundred in an unofficial Under-19 Test for India against Australia at the age of 13. It’s hard to say much more, given I’m absolutely gobsmacked, apart from the fact he’s a fearless left-hander who is opening the batting in the IPL.
SACHA THE STAR AS STORMERS MOVE UP
With three rounds to play before the top eight break off into the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals, the Stormers have worked their way into eighth place, and now have three further matches at home, two against Welsh opposition. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has stuck up his hand as the successor to Handre Pollard and the No10 showcased all his skills in the entertaining 34-29 win over Connacht.
Elsewhere the Bulls gutsed it out for a 16-13 win at Munster, the Hollywoodbets Sharks equally fought hard for their one-point win in Edinburgh, but the Lions saw their faint last eight hopes evaporate with a 42-31 home defeat to Benetton.
SUNDOWNS, PIRATES HAVE IT ALL TO DO
South Africa’s two footballing powerhouses, Sundowns and Pirates, are still in CAF Champions League contention after both drew 0-0 at home to Egyptian opposition in Al Ahly and Pyramids, respectively. The upshot is that a score draw away from home would be good enough to see them qualify for the final, given an away goal counts for two, unlike the Uefa Champions League.
The odds would favour the hosts though in their semi-final second legs, especially Pyramids, who had two goals rightly disallowed with VAR intervention at the FNB Stadium. Sundowns also benefitted, again rightly, from a goal overturned by VAR but the odds are stacked against them as well in the return leg.
HIGGO WINS TO REGAIN PGA TOUR CARD
South Africa’s Garrick Higgo won for the second time on the PGA Tour when he came from behind to win the Corales Puntacana Championship, closing with a final round 72. Higgo, a 25-year-old left-hander, had lost his PGA Tour card and had been on the Korn Ferry Tour, but this win has given him another two-year ticket to the full PGA Tour.
Five players finished one stroke behind in second, including Joe Dahmen who bogeyed his last three holes. While the PGA Tour status is the big prize for Higgo, the $720,000 will come in handy as well.
