1996 — The Proteas are eliminated from their second World Cup tournament. Facing the West Indies in the quarterfinals in Karachi, coach Bob Woolmer decided to omit premier fast bowlers Allan Donald and Fanie de Villiers. The West Indies won the toss and batted first, and Brian Lara knocked off 111 from 94 balls to push his team to 264/8. Andrew Hudson (54), Daryll Cullinan (69) and Hansie Cronje (40) led the chase, but it was insufficient and the West Indies win by 19 runs.
2000 — Vuyani Bungu suffers the only stoppage defeat of his career when he’s knocked out by mercurial Englishman Naseem Hamed in the fourth round in London. Bungu had relinquished his IBF junior-featherweight crown after 13 defences to move up a division for a big-money crack, but he never looked himself and was easily dispatched by the brash Naz.
2001 — Johan Botha, the defending 800m world indoor champion, is comprehensively beaten into second place in Portugal, losing by nearly two seconds to Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy. Botha ran 1 min 46.42 sec to edge Andre Bucher of Switzerland into third place, but he was well behind Borzakovskiy in 1:44.49. Borzakovskiy went on to beat Botha’s countryman, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
2008 — Bafana Bafana need an own goal to sneak past Zimbabwe 2-1 in a friendly at the Germiston Stadium. The visitors had the lead when Gilbert Mushangazhike struck in the 12th minute, until Sthembiso Ngcobo equalised in the 73rd minute. Ngcobo’s weak effort in injury time deflected off James Matola and into the net to win the match.
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