Crickets Back as Rugby Rests
A rugby revival for South Africa and the cricket season kicks off around the world
The international rugby season is over for the time being, but India, Australia and the West Indies kick off their cricket series and Zimbabwe arrive in South Africa.
Rugby
The South African Springboks rounded off their disappointing Tri Nations series with an impressive 24-16 win over the Wallabies at Ellis Park in Johannesburg last weekend. Although they still finish last, the South Africans will take an enormous amount of heart out of their last two matches where they also managed to beat the all conquering All Blacks.
So - at the conclusion of the 2006 tri Nations and looking ahead to the World Cup next year; despite their unexpected loss to the Springboks, the New Zealand All Blacks will consider them selves on course with their preparations, the Wallabies will be happy that they have managed to put some of the ghosts of their shocking Northern Hemisphere end of season tour last year behind them and the Springboks will look to build on the late, yet precious sustained momentum gained with their end of season flourish.
On a sadder note, the most Injury prone man in world rugby, Johnny Wilkinson has torn a medial ligament in his right knee and will be out of action for four to eight weeks. The poor chap hasn't played consistent rugby due to injury since the World Cup final in 2003. He is quoted as saying that, "he's gone beyond the point of saying - Why me...why does it always happen?" Here's wishing Wilko a speedy recovery - to have a player of his quality absent from the game for so long is a tragedy.
Cricket
England managed to bounce back from two early defeats to level the five match one day series between them and Pakistan. One match was of course rained out, but the next four proved to be extremely exciting. With a two match lead Pakistan noticeably took their feet off the pedals and allowed a fairly mediocre England team to look good. England won the fourth ODI by eight wickets and the fifth by three.
Meanwhile the DLF Cup has kicked off in Kuala Lumpur. The three way series see's India, Australia and the West Indies go head to head in what promises to be an electric cricketing extravaganza.
Australia won their first match against the West Indies by 78 runs, and then in the second One Day International (ODI), the West Indies bounced back and managed a 29 run victory over the Indians, despite a phenomenal innings by the world's greatest batsmen Sachin Tendulkar. Rain eventually stopped play and the Windies were awarded a shallow victory based on the statistical D/L method.
Australia face up to India on Saturday.
Politically challenged Zimbabwe has arrived in South Africa and have kicked off their tour in Bloemfontein. At the time of writing the Zimbo's were 110 for 2 wickets after 22.3 overs.
