Blast from the past: Richards does the double over ‘The Tank’

1975 — Mike “The Tank” Schutte, one of South Africa’s popular figures of the boxing ring, makes his second challenge for the South African heavyweight crown against Jimmy Richards in Pretoria. He lost on points over 12 rounds, but that was an improvement on the 12th-round technical knockout defeat he suffered at the hands of Richards nearly a year earlier. Schutte would make it third time lucky in his next challenge in September 1975.

1997 — Baby Jake Matlala keeps his WBO junior-flyweight title with a split decision over Mickey Cantwell of England in London. On the same bill, SA middleweight champion Giovanni Pretorius was stopped in the seventh round by WBC super-middleweight title-holder Robin Reid.

1998 — Defending champions Bafana Bafana are held to a draw in their Africa Cup of Nations opener against Angola in Burkina Faso. David Nyathi offered SA the best scoring chance, but nobody was in the box to meet his cross.

2002 — On the back of a disastrous Test tour of Australia, South Africa find some consolation by winning the ODI Tri Series. They beat New Zealand 2-0 in the best-of-three-matches final, winning the second match in Sydney by six wickets on Duckworth Lewis (they won the first match of the final by eight wickets in Melbourne two days earlier). SA bowled out New Zealand for 175 and then reached the revised target of 172 with 47 deliveries remaining. Jonty Rhodes top-scored with 61 from 68 balls. Ironically, in four ODIs against Australia, SA won only one, but in six matches against the Kiwis, they won five.

2021 — Opener Aiden Markram scores a defiant 108 in the fourth innings, but it’s not enough to save the Proteas in the final second Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. The visitors were bowled out for 274 to lose by 95 runs after suffering a collapse in which their last seven batsmen were dismissed for just 33 runs. SA’s other highlights were Anrich Nortjé’s 5/56 in Pakistan’s first knock and George Linde’s 5/64 in their second. Temba Bavuma top-scored in SA’s first innings with 44 not out and he made 61 in their second innings. Pakistan won the series 2-0, only their second series triumph over SA.