Blast from the past: Ntini reaches 300 Test-wicket milestone

Today in SA sports history: January 20

1973 — Manuel Francisco blows a 6-1 lead in the 21-frame final of the world amateur snooker championships in Cardiff, eventually going down 10-11 to Ray Edmonds of England.

1990 — Graeme Pope-Ellis claims his 15th and final Dusi Canoe Marathon crown as he and partner Tim Cornish win the three-day race, which attracted 15,000 paddlers that year. The Pope, as Pope-Ellis was known, was 42 at the time. He won his first title in 1972 and broke the record four times, all in a K2, taking it down nearly two hours from 10hr 02 min 32 sec to 8:07:08.

1996 — Mark Williams scores in the 57th minute to give Bafana Bafana a 1-0 victory over Angola in their Africa Cup of Nations group match at FNB Stadium. Having beaten Cameroon in their opener, SA were guaranteed a spot in the knockout stages.

2007 — Makhaya Ntini becomes the third South African to reach 300 Test wickets when he dismisses Mohammad Sami on the second day of the second Test against Pakistan in Port Elizabeth. He took six wickets in that innings — and eight in the match — but it didn’t prevent the visitors from securing a five-wicket win to draw level in the series at 1-1.