1965 — Colin Bland scores 127 as SA set England a target of 399 in the final third Test at The Oval. The match ended in a draw the next day with the visitors claiming a 1-0 series triumph, only their second such victory in England. The home side, however, gave it a go, reaching 308/4 when stumps were drawn. They were grittier than they’d been in their first innings of 202, during which Peter Pollock took 5/43.
1992 — Striker Phil Masinga is red-carded in the dying moments as Bafana Bafana are beaten 0-1 by Zambia in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at a largely empty FNB Stadium. Timothy Mwitwa scored for the visitors.
1993 — Jonty Rhodes scores an unbeaten 101 as the Proteas hold out against Sri Lanka and force a draw in the first Test in Colombo. Needing to survive after being put in to bat late on the fourth day, SA made it to stumps on 251/7, still well short of the 365 needed for victory. Allan Donald took 5/69 in the first innings.
2008 — Winger Jongi Nokwe scores four tries as the Springboks sweep aside Australia 53-8 in a Tri-Nations match at Ellis Park. SA crossed for eight tries in all.
2014 — Rowers James Thompson and John Smith win SA’s first-ever world championship gold as they power to victory in the lightweight men’s double sculls in Amsterdam. Their 6 min 05.36 sec winning time over the 2,000m course is also a world best. Making their feat even more impressive is that the pair, both in the Olympic champion lightweight four two years earlier, had only months earlier switched to sculls, where rowers use two blades, from the single sweep-oar. On the same day, Shaun Keeling and Vince Breet took bronze in the men’s pair.
2015 — Sunette Viljoen wins her second world championship medal as she takes the bronze in the women’s javelin at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing. Viljoen’s 65.79m in the fourth round put her into the lead, but she was overhauled by China’s Lu Huihui (66.13m) in the fifth round and Katharina Molitor of Germany (67.69m) in the final sixth round.
2016 — The Proteas beat New Zealand by 204 runs in the final second Test in Pretoria to win the series 2-0. Captain Faf du Plessis had scored an unbeaten 112 in SA’s first innings of 481 while Quinton de Kock had contributed in both knocks, scoring 82 and 50. Dale Steyn took 5/33 in the visitors’ second innings.
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