Dark weekend for SA sport
The only consolation was the Blitzboks, who stretched their lead to eight points after four legs of the Sevens Series.
Paula Dranisinukula of Fiji makes a break during the Cup final match between Fiji and the Blitzboks during the 2018 New Zealand Sevens at FMG Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Hamilton, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
The first weekend of February 2018 will go down as one South African sports fans will want to forget in a hurry.
India thumped the Proteas, our national tennis team lost a Davis Cup tie thriller to Israel and the Blitzboks fell just short of winning the Hamilton leg on the Sevens Series.
Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow was the cricket at Centurion yesterday. India made light work of the Proteas to win the second one-day international by nine wickets with a whopping 177 balls remaining after restricting the hosts to a meagre total of 118 – the lowest ODI total at the ground.
It was a woeful display from the Proteas, who now find themselves 2-0 down in the six-match series. It will be a day new stand-in limited overs captain Aiden Markram – in for injured Faf du Plessis for the rest of the series – will want to forget as he failed to contribute with the bat and then had to watch India race to the winning score in just over 20 overs.
Without Du Plessis and AB de Villiers, they will have to bounce back on Wednesday in Cape Town if they are to make a fist of the series.
On the tennis courts, the South African Davis Cup tennis team went down 3-2 in their Euro/Africa Group 1 tie in Irene after holding a 2-1 lead. In Malaysia, golfer Dylan Frittelli had to settle for a share of fifth place in the Maybank Championship after entering the final round in a share of the lead. Sadly, he could only card a closing-round 71.
The only consolation was the Blitzboks, who stretched their lead to eight points after four legs of the Sevens Series.
Last week in Sydney, they fell at the last hurdle after losing to hosts Australia in the final and yesterday, they couldn’t clear the final hurdle again, losing to Fiji 24-17 in the final after leading 17-5 at the break.
Let’s hope success is around the corner.
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