Blast from the past: Lucky 13 – Ntini blows away Windies batsmen

Today in SA sports history: April 12

1976 — SA Rugby Board president Dr Danie Craven says that if a “multinational” SA team — his term for a mixed race side — were to play, they would not wear the springbok badge because that was reserved for white teams. “The leaping springbok, registered by the SA Rugby Board, has been associated with whites since 1891 and is their traditional emblem. The proteas of the Coloured team and the leopard of the African team both have their own traditions and history ... If all races played with a springbok badge what would the whites wear when they play on their own?” he said in a Rand Daily Mail report. Craven was commenting on reports that rugby was the only of the major sports not wanting the springbok to worn by all race groups, and he was roundly criticised for his stance. Even the Springbok captain at the time, Morne du Plessis, disagreed with Craven, saying he could see no reason a side chosen on merit to represent SA should not wear the springbok emblem. Six months later, however, Craven was singing a different tune: “When the day dawns when there will only be mixed SA teams, and we, the coloureds and the blacks decide to have the Springbok as our emblem for such teams, we shall gladly share it with them.” His change of heart coincided with a warning by New Zealand prime minister Robert Muldoon to discourage sporting bodies from touring SA. The All Blacks had toured earlier in the year.

1976 — Cricketer Baboo Ebrahim takes six wickets in the four-day match to help his SA Invitation side beat the International Wanderers, captained by Australian Greg Chappell, by 122 runs at Kingsmead in Durban. For many observers, the performance of the spinner, who finished with match figures of 6/66, was proof that cricketers of colour were of the same standard as their white counterparts. His scalps included Chappell, England’s Mike Denness and West Indian John Shepherd, all international cricketers. The victory meant that the Invitation team ended the three-match series against the Wanderers level on 1-1.

1986 — Myrtle Bothma becomes the first SA woman to break 54 seconds in the 400m hurdles as she clocks a 53.95 national record in Johannesburg. Bothma would lower her mark even further, and more than 30 years later no other SA hurdler had managed to dip under 54 seconds, let alone break her mark.

1992 — Kepler Wessels hit 45 from 77 balls to top-score for SA in their third and final one-day international against the West Indies in Port of Spain. SA posted 189/6 in their 50 overs, but the hosts romped home by seven wickets after Phil Simmons made a century. The West Indies won the ODI series 3-0 before heading into a one-off Test against SA.

2000 — Playing for the first time since Hansie Cronje admitted wrongdoing amid the match-fixing scandal, the Proteas beat Australia by six wickets in the first ODI in Durban. Makhaya Ntini took four wickets as Australia were restricted to 240/9, with Damien Martyn top-scoring with 74. Gary Kirsten, who kissed the badge of his helmet as he walked out to bat, made 97 to help SA to victory with two overs remaining. Jacques Kallis scored 61 and Jonty Rhodes 46. 

2005 — Makhaya Ntini becomes only the second South African to claim 13 wickets in a Test as the Proteas beat the West Indies by eight wickets in the second Test in Port of Spain. Ntini took 7/37 as the hosts were bowled out for 194 in the second innings. That gave him match figures of 13/132, joining  Hugh Tayfield as the nation’s highest wicket-taker in a Test. Chasing 144 for victory, openers AB de Villiers (62) and captain Graeme Smith (41) did the early work to secure victory for a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

2014 — Simon Magakwe becomes the first South African to break 10 seconds in a 100m race as he wins his sixth consecutive national title in 9.98 in Pretoria. In the same race were three sprinters who went on to run faster than him — second-placed Akani Simbine (9.89), fourth-placed Henricho Bruintjies (9.97) and sixth-placed Thando Roto (9.95). The following year Magakwe was banned for two years for a doping offence — he refused to undergo an out-of-competition test in December 2014, claiming he was rushing to visit his ill mother in hospital — but he returned to win a seventh SA title in 2018.