Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 16th October 12:30 pm

Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:

# We start with cricket: Proteas captain Aiden Markram ascribed their 93-run defeat to Pakistan in the first Test in Lahore to the top order’s inability to post competitive scores. South Africa was bowled out for 183 in their second innings after a first-innings deficit of 109 runs, when Tony de Zorzi’s 104 and Ryan Rickelton’s 71 were the only highlights. This cancelled spinner Senuran Muthusamy’s brilliant 11 wicket haul. Markram expects similar conditions in the second Test in Rawalpindi, and wants himself and the other batters to up their game.

# On to rugby: Reinhardt Ludwig will captain a new-look Bulls team in tomorrow night’s United Rugby Championship match against Connacht in Galway, Ireland. Head coach Johan Ackermann made 11 changes to his starting-15 after last weekend’s loss to Ulster which saw the Pretoria team plummeting from first to sixth on the log. The team will be without Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard, who returned home for the birth of his second child, and Keagan Johannes will wear the number 10 jersey, with Bok stalwart Willie le Roux at fullback.

More rugby news: Five members of the victorious Junior Springbok team who won the World Rugby Under-20 Championship in Italy earlier this year, were included in the SA Rugby Under 19 Academy training squad. They will go on a three-game tour of Europe at the end of the month. The triumphant Junior Boks who are part of the training squad are SA Under-20 captain Riley Norton, Oliver Reid, Phiwayinkosi “Rambo” Kubheka, Siphosethu Mnebelele, and Vusi Moyo. The 36-man squad will play two matches in France and one in Ireland.

# Soccer: Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has named a squad of 25 players to face the Democratic Republic of Congo in a crucial 2026 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier next week Wednesday. The return leg will be played in Johannesburg on October 28. Thembi Kgatlana, who last played for the national team in April, returns to the squad. Ellis has included seven overseas-based players. WAFCON will be held in Morocco for the second time in the space of two years.

# And finally, motorsport: South Africa’s Brad Binder, who is enduring his worst season in MotoGP since his rookie campaign in 2020, is determined to finish the season strong. With four rounds remaining, the Red Bull KTM rider sits in 11th place in the championship with just 118 points. He fought from 15th on the grid to finish fourth, only one second off the Indonesian Grand Prix podium two weeks ago. Binder says he is confident he can turn things around:

Stay tuned for more news………….