Lots of late Winter/Early Spring sports here at SR, or in the south, Late Summer/Early Autumn...
In the Cricket world, Australia continues its tour
of South Africa, with a 2nd Test at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, March 9th
-13th. At stumps, after the second day of play, Australia is leading
convincingly. Hosts South
Africa trail by 204 runs with 9 wickets remaining in the 1st innings. Kagiso Rabada, Faf du Plessis, and the South
Africans are not cowed by this lead, as Australia chose to bat first, and their
lead is actually the lowest lead in a while they have made in the first at bat
in their international test matches. So,
today's (tomorrow's) next meeting should test their mettle. Meanwhile, England continues their tour of
New Zealand with a 5th ODI at Hagley
Oval, Christchurch.
In other Cricket news, the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 is taking
place in Zimbabwe. The national teams of
ten countries are playing between last Sunday and March 25th to be able to
compete with the automatic qualifiers in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Countries competing include the West Indies, Afghanistan, hosts Zimbabwe, Ireland, the Netherlands,
Scotland, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates. The tournament beings with Round Robin, in
group play, and then continues through knockout, following the One Day
International Format. Saturday's matches
include the West Indies playing Ireland at the Harare Sports Club, and Zimbabwe
playing Hong Kong at the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo.
This weekend is the fourth meeting of Six Nations Rugby,
which is played each February and March on select weekends. Ireland, who is so far undefeated in the
tournament, hosts Scotland at the Aviva Stadium. Scotland is doing well in the tournament,
also, having won lost against Wales the first week, they have rebounded to beat
England and France. Today, France will host
England today at the Stade de France. France,
having lost their first two games, beat Italy last week. England, having won their first two matches,
lost to Scotland last week. The answer
on whether Ireland can run the table will be better answer after today's
games.
In European Soccer, in the Premier League, Manchester United
vs. Liverpool should be a hard fought match.
United showed great character to
come from two down at Crystal Palace at Monday and win, but the result flatters
a performance that for the large part was disappointing. Liverpool are a better
side than Palace and with Mohamed Salah continuing to excel, Jurgen Klopp's men
are well poised to exploit the fact that United are misfiring at present. in
the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich will meet Hamburg in a match today.
Sunday is NCAA Mens' Basketball selection Sunday for the
teams which will take part in the annual dance, the tournament to determine
number one. So, today is chock full of
semifinals and finals in various conferences, all wrapping up prior to the
selection who tomorrow afternoon. In the
Ivy League Basketball Tournament, Harvard
takes on Cornell in the first semifinal,
and then Yale takes on Penn (Pennsylvania), in the second semifinal game, all played
at The Palestra in Philadelphia. Did you know Cornell is in the Ivy
League?
We could not finish this article without thanking our Italian
correspondent for alerting us to a tragic situation in Serie A Soccer. On Thursday, thousands gathered in Florence for
the funeral of Italian Serie A star Davide Astori. The sudden death of the 31-year-old player, who captained his Fiorentina
club, and played on the Italian National Squad, has sparked outpouring of grief in this football-mad
country. Children wearing Fiorentina's
distinctive purple formed a guard of honour outside the Santa Croce basilica in
the city as Astori's coffin was carried out after the service. Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and his past
Juventus teammate Giorgio Chiellini were among the mourners having flow back
from London where the Turin team dedicated their Champions League victory over
Tottenham on Wednesday to Astori. Chiellini
after the match said: "We dedicate the win to him. He is on our minds on
this day. I cried many times. He was a fantastic player." Fellow internationals Daniele De Rossi and
Mario Balotelli were also among players present and the entire Fiorentina team,
dressed in sober dark suits and ties, came to pay their respects.
Meanwhile, the European sporting world has been rocked by two
other recent untimely deaths. 17 year
old Neapolitan swimmer phenom Mario Riccio was training on Sunday afternoon when
he felt pain in his arm. In a few
moments his heart had stopped, and could not be restarted, not even by a defibrillator.
His coach was, of course, present at his death, along with his parents and
siblings, who were spending their Sunday afternoon watching his training He was already making a name for himself in Italian
and European swimming, and is described as an excellent student and athlete, with good
all around attitude. In France, the
Tours Football Club reported the sad and untimely death of 18 year old Thomas
Rodriguez. He died last week in his
sleep for yet undetermined causes. Our thoughts and prayers are with their friends and families.
So as not to end on such a sad note, we call your attention to the fact that Aussie Rules Football pre season has concluded, following a nontraditional format played on a soccer field, for two ten minute halves. We will introduce more about the upcoming season next weekend. That's the surest sign of a coming Winter yet!
