Sport Highlights, 7 – 9 April
Although it is the school holidays, this weekend is packed with sporting highlights both locally and on the international front.
This weekend offers a variety of sports action to everyone’s taste.
Rugby
While there are still plenty of action at schools level during the school holidays, the Super Rugby tournament also continues.
The Bulls will finish their tour overseas with a match against the Sunwolves in Japan.
They will have to win this game to prevent the tour from being a total disaster.
The action starts at 07:15 on Saturday morning (SA time).
Cricket
The domestic cricket season is over, but many cricket fans in South Africa will stay glued to their TV sets for the Indian Premier League (IPL), which started on Wednesday.
Only eight South African players survived the auction before this year’s tournament, but a few were added to the league afterwards when other players had to withdraw.
Five of the teams also have South Africans involved with their coaching staff.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore, the team in which AB de Villiers and Tabraiz Shamsi as players as well as Allan Donald as bowling coach are involved, played in the tournament opening game on Wednesday.
The Rising Pune Supergiants, the team of Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir, with Eric Simons as bowling coach, was in action on Thursday.
On Friday, the Kolkata Knight Riders, with Jacques Kallis as head coach and Mark Boucher as fielding coach, will play against the Gujarat Lions (no South African involvement).
On Saturday Du Plessis, Tahir and Simons will be on duty again when their team play against Kings XI Punajab, with David Miller and Hasim Amla in their midst.
Another team with a South African coach, the Delhi Daredevils, where Paddy Upton takes the reins, play against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris is the surviving South Africans for the Daredevils after JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock had to withdraw from the tournament.
On Sunday, another two games will be played.
First in line is the Sunrisers Hyderabad against the Gujarat Lions, two teams without any South African involvement.
Sunday’s second game is a clash between the Mumbai Indians, where Jonty Rhodes is the fielding coach, and the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Golf
The first of the four so-called ‘major’ golf tournaments of the year, the US Masters, started on Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia in the USA.
Unlike the other major championships, the Masters is held each year at the same location and the field of players is smaller than those of the other major championships because it is an invitational event with unique criteria by which players are invited annually.
Five South Africans will be involved this year.
They are Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Trevor Immelman and Brandon Grace.
Late at night on Sunday we will know how these South Africans have performed.
Tennis
Tennis lovers from Pretoria are in the privileged position to be able to see South Africa’s Davis Cup team in action for the second time this year.
The action will again take place at Irene Country Club in Centurion.
The organizers changed the normal format a bit to give more people the chance to see all the action from day one.
Play will only start at 15:00 on Friday with the first of the two singles ties.
That means the second singles game on day one will be played in the early evening.
On Saturday the doubles tie will also start at 15:00, while the action in the reverse singles games will start at 11:00 on Sunday.
Soccer
The attention of football fans this weekend will rejoin the action in the Nedbank Cup.
The only action with a local flavour will be the game between Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows, which will take place on Saturday at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville.
The game will start at 15:00.
Athletics
The Ford Athletics Club in Silverton presents their 3-in-1 road race this weekend on Saturday morning.
The event consists of a 21,1km half marathon, a 10km road race and a 5km fun run.
The race will start and end at the Ford Motor Company Sports Grounds in Simon Vermooten Avenue, Silverton.
The half marathon and 10km race will start at 06:30, while the fun run start at 06:45.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
