1911 — Australia win the fifth and final Test in Sydney, beating South Africa by seven wickets to take the series 4-1.
1932 — South Africa’s openers Jim Christy and Bruce Mitchell both make half-centuries to steer the team to an eight-wicket victory over New Zealand in the second and final Test in Wellington, taking the series 2-0.
1949 — Wicketkeeper Billy Wade, resuming on 63, scores 125 as South Africa are bowled out for 379 in the fifth and final Test against England at St George’s Park. Bruce Mitchell, resuming on 73, was out for 99.
1953 — Jackie McGlew, resuming on 151, scores an unbeaten 255 and Anton Murray, 29 overnight, 109 as South Africa declare their first innings on 524/8 in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington.
1970 — Barry Richards scores 126 in the fourth and final Test against Australia at St George’s Park.
1976 — Alan Toweel, trainer of heavyweight Mike Schutte, says he has turned down a R100,000 offer to fight then world champion Muhammad Ali. “Mike is not ready yet,” said Toweel. “They have accepted my reasons for not wanting an early fight and have sent me a cable to confirm it.” Toweel wanted Schutte to fight two opponents who had already fought Ali, including Chuck Wepner. Schutte would indeed fight Wepner, but the Ali bout never materialised.
1981 — Charlie Weir, one of South African boxing’s biggest draw cards of the 1970s and early 1980s, bombs out world-ranked junior-middleweight Steve Gregory of the US in the third round at Ellis Park. Weir hurt his opponent, rated fifth by the WBA, with two right hands to the head and referee Stan Christodoulou waved it over. Weir would challenge for that organisation’s title the following year.
1999 — Johan Botha beats legendary Wilson Kipketer to win the 800m title at the world indoor championships in Japan. Botha clocked 1 min 45.47 sec to edge the Kenyan-turned-Dane by two-hundredths of a second.
1999 — Dingaan Thobela beats Walter Daneff of Argentina on a seventh-round technical knockout at Nasrec, but he can’t lift the vacant IBO welterweight title because he had failed to make the weight limit. Thobela had tried to cheat his way through the weigh-in by surreptitiously placing his thumb on the front display of the electronic scale that was chest high. When his opponent’s manager told him to remove his one hand, he immediately tried using his other hand. Thobela, a few kilograms overweight, was given several hours to lose as much weight as possible. Instead, he returned even heavier, officially fighting 9kg (20 pounds) above the welterweight limit. On the same bill, Stephen Msimanga and Mawanda Sineko fought for the vacant IBO strawweight title, but neither could become the world champion after the bout was declared a draw.
2002 — Kerri Laing scores an unbeaten 91 before the first ODI against India at Lenasia Stadium is rained out.
2015 — AB de Villiers hits 77 off 58 balls as the Proteas are bowled out for 202 to lose their rain-hit World Cup pool contest against Pakistan in Auckland by 29 runs on Duckworth-Lewis.
2020 — JJ Smuts scores 84 as the Proteas chase down the 255-run target to beat Australia by six wickets in the final third ODI in Potchefstroom for a 3-0 series clean sweep.
2021 — Lizelle Lee scores an unbeaten 83 and Laura Wolvaardt 80 as the South African women, needing 178 to win, beat India by eight wickets in the first ODI in Lucknow.
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