Blast from the past: Rain drowns Proteas’ World Cup hopes in Durban

Today in SA sports history: March 3

1985 — Snooker star Silvino Francisco, a 50-1 outsider with a world ranking of 17, wins the British Open Championship in Derby, beating Kirk Stevens of Canada 12-9 in the final and pocketing what was then a world record purse of £50,000 (R1m), which translated into R107,000 at the time. Francisco, then 38, was only the second man to be ranked outside the top 16 to win a major snooker crown. Francisco, who had relocated from Cape Town to England a few years earlier, learnt to play the game at the shop owned by his father Manuel, a fisherman who had immigrated from Portugal. There were two tables in the back where he would play each day after school. In 1997 Francisco was nabbed in Dover trying to smuggle 50kg of dagga in his sports car from Spain and was imprisoned for three years. 

1990 — Capetonian Eric Melville, who made his first-team debut as a lock for the Villagers club in 1982, becomes the first naturalised Frenchman from SA to play rugby for France. He came off the bench to play flank during France’s 31-12 victory over Ireland at Parc des Princes. He earned a total of six caps, two of them as eighthman. Melville’s regular teammates during his tenure at Villagers included Springboks Nick Mallett, scrumhalf Roy McCallum and prop Attie Strauss, as well as Springbok trialist Bossie Clarke.

2003 — The Proteas are eliminated from the World Cup on home soil after tying their must-win match against Sri Lanka in Durban. Batting first the visitors made 268/9 with opener Marvan Atapattu making 124 from 129 balls and veteran Aravinda de Silva 73 from 78 deliveries. The target was revised to 230 from 45 overs because of rain. Needing one run off the final ball, bowled by Muttiah Muralitharan, Mark Boucher and Lance Klusener didn’t even attempt to run the single, and so SA ended on 229/6. A single would have brought SA victory and a place in the next round. That was the first World Cup where SA had failed to reach the knockout stage.

2010 — Bafana Bafana disappoint their fans as they’re held to a 1-1 draw by lowly Namibia in a friendly at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban. SA, preparing to host the World Cup a few months later, found themselves a goal down after Maritzburg United player Rudolf Bester netted just before halftime. Katlego Mphela equalised in the 70th minute to ensure that Bafana, 81 on the world rankings at the time, didn’t lose to a side ranked 109th.

2019 — Skipper Faf du Plessis scores an unbeaten 112 runs and Quinton de Kock 81 as the Proteas beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the opening ODI at the Wanderers. Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir took three wickets each as SA bowled out the visitors for 231.