CRICKET

The Standard Bank Pro20 series came to a spectacular end on Saturday night when the Nashua Cape Cobras defeated the Gestener Diamond Eagles by 22 runs at a jam packed Sahara Park Newlands stadium. The tournament lived up to expectations and gave the record crowds a truly rockstar experience of cricket. There was a plethora of boundaries, loads of hip-shaking music from the DJ box and lots of wet faces in the dunk tank, but most importantly, there was quality adrenaline-filled cricket. A record 182 313 fans came out to watch this season’s Pro20 series, the highest since its inception five years ago, and, as Justin Ontong put it, the fans make it all worthwhile.

RUGBY

The Sharks and the Vodacom Bulls are amongst the early pace-setters in the Vodacom Super 14 after an interesting second round of matches.

It was a good weekend for Australian teams in the competition with three of their four sides securing wins. The New Zealand sides had an off-weekend, however, with four of their five suffering defeats.

The Bulls lead the standings after crushing the Blues 59-26 at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday. It was their biggest-ever win over the Auckland side.

RUGBY

SA Rugby are set to write off their R10-million sponsorship with clothing manufacturer Canterbury after the latter was liquidated last month. Afrikaans newspaper Sondag reported that Canterbury International were sending out a representative to the country this week to try and salvage the relationship, as well as find a new licensee for the clothing line. The newspaper reported that a consortium, headed by Bernie Habana – father of Springbok winger Bryan – will meet with Canterbury International this week in their bid to take over the license and ensure that Canterbury’s products are still on the shelves in South Africa.

ATHLETICS

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius was conscious and ready to be discharged from the Milpark Hospital following a boat accident, a paramedic said on Sunday. Pistorius sustained minor injuries to his face after a boat accident on the Vaal, south of Johannesburg on Saturday night.

GOLF

Jaco van Zyl had to get up and down from a bed of roses on the par-five 18th hole of the Woodmead course of Country Club Johannesburg to win the Telkom PGA Championship. His chip from the flower bed looked for all the world to be scooting right over the green, but, on its third bounce, the backspin kicked in and it stopped dead 15 feet from the pin. The putt still needed to be sunk with Canada’s Graham DeLaet already in the clubhouse at 17-under-par 271 after his final round of 64 with not a single dropped shot in a superb final charge.