Below-strength Proteas gear up for Black Caps, Liverpool’s title charge and more!

This week Gary Lemke has look at a below-strength Proteas outfit, Liverpool’s title charge, LIV Golf’s season-opener and more!

‘BIG 3’ DOMINATE SA20 CRICKET
We’ve still got this weekend to get through before the SA20 playoffs start, but the most successful, and consistent team, has been Durban’s Super Giants. It’s actually a log of two halves, with clear daylight between the top three teams and the remaining three teams. DSG, Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Paarl Royals easily look the best on show, with Johannesburg Super Kings, Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town all having lost more games than they’ve won, but one of them will reach the last four. Given the fact it’s the unpredictable T20 format though, it’s never over until the fat lady has sung. And right now she hasn’t started clearing her throat.

‘BELOW STRENGTH’ PROTEAS TAKE ON KIWIS

Our weekend might stop when we hear the Carte Blanche theme, but that only heralds the end of day one of the opening cricket Test between New Zealand and South Africa. The Proteas, who have sent a “weakened” squad owing to some first-choice players’ commitments to the SA20 (what were we saying about every person has their price?) are big underdogs at the Bay Oval. In fact, the “scientific” win probability has New Zealand 71% favourites to win, South Africa at 17% and 12% the draw. Don’t get me started on this subject.

BAFANA GOING BIG AT AFCON

Once the nation’s laughing stock, Bafana Bafana are now 90 minutes away from reaching the semi-finals of AFCON. They meet Cape Verde in the quarter-final on Saturday after impressively downing World Cup semi-finalists Morocco in the Last 16. Should Bafana get past Cape Verde they will have a semi-final showdown with either Nigeria or Angola. The other side of the draw has DR Congo, Guinea and Ivory Coast and Mali. Regarding the latest world rankings, the top five sides on the continent are already eliminated. And South Africa are higher ranked than Cape Verde. Can we dare to dream?

LIV GOLFERS EASE INTO THEIR SEASON

Golf’s LIV Series for the year gets under way in Makayoba, Mexico and it’s the perfect place to celebrate with a few tequilas. Just don’t let Marcus Rashford know. LIV, the Saudi Arabia-funded breakaway tour, has pulled two big fish already this year – Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, proving that every person has their price. The format is three rounds (54 holes) with a shotgun start and $4-million awaiting the winner. South Africa’s four representatives in the field are Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Dean Burmester.

ODDS-ON FAVOURITES IN BIG-TICKET FEATURES

The big race meeting of the weekend is at Turffontein where the Gauteng Colts and Fillies Guineas are both run over the mile. Both are Grade 2 events, but the Fillies Guineas is for a stake of R750 000 and the Colts Guineas R1 million. Both races have odds-on favourites in Gimme A Nother and Sandringham Summit and it looks hard to oppose either. However, as we saw in last week’s Cape Met, there’s no such thing as a racing certainty. Still, it’s hard to not be tempted by the 4/1 treble of Zeus, Gimme A Nother and Sandringham Summit on the day.

LIVERPOOL MAKING A TITLE CASE

There’s been a real stop-start feel to the Premier League this season, but another full round of action takes place this weekend. Saturday sees five games, four are being played on Sunday and one on Monday. Without doubt, the stand-out game is at the Emirates on Sunday when Arsenal host Liverpool. With Liverpool tearing apart Chelsea 4-1 in midweek, they have a five-point cushion at the top of the table and whatever happens this weekend they will still be top with 15 games remaining. Brighton are an enigma. After hitting an average of two goals per game in their first half of the season they have gone 270 minutes scoreless. They host Crystal Palace on Saturday and surely the best bet there is the 9/10 that both teams will score.