South African lawn bowlers have the Midas touch at world champs

1911 — Billy Zulch, resuming on 7, scores 150 in South Africa’s follow-on innings of the fifth and final Test against Australia in Sydney.

1939 — Dudley Nourse, resuming on 77, scores 103 as South Africa are bowled out for 530 by England in the fifth and final match at Kingsmead, known as the “timeless” Test.

1950 — South Africa suffer what was at the time their heaviest cricket Test defeat, losing by an innings and 259 runs to Australia in Port Elizabeth. The match was scheduled for four days but was over in three. Three Australians scored centuries in their total of 549/7, declared. The South Africans were bowled out for 158 and 132. Only skipper Dudley Nourse managed a half-century, making 55 in the second innings. That remained South Africa’s worst losing margin until 2002.

1953 — Jackie McGlew scores an unbeaten 151 on the first day of the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington.

1976 — South Africa win all four gold medals on offer at the World Bowls Championships at Zoo Lake in Johannesburg, the only time in the history of the tournament that one nation has achieved a clean sweep. South Africa also secures the Leonard Trophy as the top team. Doug Watson, 31, is crowned the youngest singles world champion at the time, though on the last day’s play he loses his final match to England’s 1966 world champion David Bryant. South Africa’s Bill Moseley, Kevin Campbell, Nando Gatti and Kelvin Lightfoot narrowly defeat England 15-13 to take the fours gold. Several days earlier Watson and Moseley had triumphed in the pairs and Campbell, Gatti and Lightfoot in the triples. Watson, a salesman from the East Rand, is regarded as the star of the South African team. He took up bowls at 20 after breaking his right arm in two places during a rugby match. “It was not set properly and gave me a lot of trouble afterwards,” said Watson, who as a result quit rugby, tennis, cricket, and soccer.

1982 — South Africa’s cricketers engage in their first limited overs match, though it never counted as a one-day international because it was against a rebel English team during international isolation. Captain Graham Gooch plays aggressively as he hits 114 runs off 132 deliveries to help the tourists reach 240/5 at St George’s Park. But it wasn’t enough with the hosts in rampant form. Openers Jimmy Cook (82 from 118 balls) and Barry Richards (62 from 89) laid the platform, but it was 38-year-old Graeme Pollock, clubbing an unbeaten 57 off 44 deliveries, who earned the bulk of the praise as South Africa won by seven wickets with 16 balls remaining.

1994 — Hansie Cronje scores 122 in the first Test against Australia at the Wanderers.

1999 — Zolile Mbityi is beaten on points over 12 rounds for the WBU’s vacant flyweight title by Englishman Peter Culshaw in Liverpool.

2000 — Nicky Boje finishes with five wickets as South Africa bowl out India for 250 to win the second and final Test against India in Bengaluru by an innings and 71 runs and the series 2-0, a first series triumph in India.

2011 — Imran Tahir takes 4/38 and Robin Peterson 3/22 as the Proteas bowl out England for 171, but they are dismissed for 165 to lose their World Cup group match in Chennai by six runs.

2016 — Faf du Plessis scores 79 from 41 balls, but the Proteas, on 204/7, lose the second T20 against Australia at the Wanderers by five wickets, Mitchell Marsh clinching it off the final delivery by hitting Kagiso Rabada for two runs.

2016 — Marizanne Kapp’s 17 is the highest score as the South African women are bowled out for 98 to lose the second T20 against the West Indies at the Wanderers by 45 runs.

2019 — Quinton de Kock smashes 94 runs off 70 balls to help the Proteas trounce Sri Lanka by 113 runs in the second ODI at Centurion. South Africa were bowled out for 251 before dismissing the tourists for 138.