Gary Lemke looks back at a jam-packed sporting weekend as Teboho Mokoena struck another sensational strike in a Bafana Bafana win over Congo, while Atur Beterbiev unified the light-heavyweight division.
WHY PROTEAS NEED ENGLAND TO WIN
The Women’s Proteas made heavy weather of chasing down a small target to beat Bangladesh Bangladesh, getting to 107 in 17.2 overs, and while they and England are in the semi-final slots for now from Group B, the Proteas haven’t officially booked their place in the last four of the women’s T20 World Cup.
South Africa will finish runners-up and play Australia in the semis in a repeat of last year’s final if the Windies upset England on Tuesday, South Africa are out. England are heavy favourites to win and top the group, and even a washed-out day in Dubai wouldn’t help the Windies.
BETERBIEV UNIFIES THE LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHTS
Artur Beterbiev won the battle of the Russian light-heavyweights and bagged the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO belts in the process, when he won a narrow, but controversial points decision over Dmitry Bivol in Saudi Arabia. The match-up was between the best two 81kg fighters in the world, both unbeaten and both heavy punchers.
It was Beterbiev who was declared the winner 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112, although the actual action didn’t match the hype. Elsewhere, South Africa’s IBF junior-flyweight (49kg) world champion Sivenathi Nontshinga was dropped three times before he was stopped by the 32-year-old Masamichi Yabuki in the ninth round.
Beterbiev-Bivol exchanges 💥
— Steve Boxman (@SteveBoxman) October 13, 2024
In between Canelo-GGG 2 and this fight, which fights would you say produced “high level” technical skill?#boxing pic.twitter.com/bknF45BtvL
MOKOENA STRIKE IS TALK OF THE TOWN
Bafana Bafana put on a goal-scoring clinic when they routed the Congo 5-0 in Gqeberha to move closer to qualifying for next year’s African Cup of Nations. The Congo are ranked 117th in the world, not to be confused with the DR Congo who are 58th and one ahead of South Africa (59th).
However, spurred by Teboho Mokoena’s two goals – one of which is being spoken about as one of the best in Bafana Bafana history – the hosts purred to a win to join Uganda at the top of Group K. Both look nailed-on to qualify for next year’s Afcon.
NORMAL SERVICE RESUMES FOR URC HOSTS
It is with no sense of delight that I can say I called the United Rugby Championship pretty much spot on in the weekend’s lookahead blog. I mentioned how tough it was to win away from home and that while the Lions and Bulls would win away, which they did – Welsh rugby being at such a low ebb – the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Stormers would lose.
Which they did. The Sharks went down 38-10 at Benetton and the Stormers fell 38-7 in Edinburgh. There were three away wins from eight and one came in a Welsh derby. Leinster, as we also mentioned, are the best team in the URC and have now won four out of four, as have the Bulls. If you’re betting on the URC, or on Superbru, I can assure you that you’ll end up in profit by backing the home teams.
WOMEN’S BOKS IMPROVE, BUT LOSE AGAIN TO ITALY
The Women’s Springboks came down to earth with a bump when they were beaten 23-19 by Italy in their Women’s WXV match against Italy, on a weekend when Wales beat Japan and Australia saw off Scotland. There had been much expectation and hype ahead of the game against Italy, given the improvement Swys de Bruin had made since taking over as coach and their strong display against Australia a week before.
Their previous games against Italy had seen the Women’s Boks lose by 25 and 18 points, so this margin of four signalled further improvement. The Women’s Boks had already qualified for next year’s World Cup.
ALSO WORTH TALKING ABOUT …
This weekend’s International football break included games in the Nations League where England rebounded from defeat to Greece to beat Finland 3-1, while Greece continued their good form in that group, beating Ireland 2-0. On Monday, Germany play Holland and Belgium meet France in the headline-grabbers …
England’s Don Bradbury won the DP World Tour’s Open de France on the same course where Scottie Scheffler won Olympic gold in August. Bradbury shot 16-under-par, which would have placed him fourth at the Olympics … In a week that tennis great Rafa Nadal said he was returning at this year’s Davis Cup, Jannick DSinner confirmed the changing of the guard has taken place when beating Novak Djokovic 7-6 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters. Sinner, the world No1, has won 64 of his 71 matches this year and Djokovic is still looking for that 100th career title.
