Cricket: Replacement paceman Kyle Abbott took 6-77 as South Africa completed an innings and 80-run humiliation of Australia in Hobart yesterday to seal the three-match series with a game to spare. Handed a rare opportunity with Dale Steyn injured, the 29-year-old Man of the Match grabbed four wickets in the morning at Bellerive Oval as Australia lost eight wickets for 40 runs and were dismissed for 161 before lunch on day four. Resurgent South Africa, who won the series-opener in Perth by 177 runs, will head into their first day-night test match in Adelaide next week confident they can sweep their demoralised opponents.
Anti-Doping: The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) is poised to enforce a 20 per cent reduction in testing due to a lack of government funding. The AFLD said in a statement that a €700,000 increase of government support, equating to a 9 per cent raise, for 2017 had been cancelled due to a “credit freeze”. “Of the €8.5 million provided for in the draft budget bill for 2017, only 7.8 million will actually be paid,” the statement read. The AFLD explained it had an annual deficit of €650,000 and that it could no longer continue to use its working capital to compensate for the losses. The AFLD has most notably conducted tests for the Tour de France.
Wrestling: New York’s Columbia University has suspended its men’s wrestling team as it investigates “racist, misogynistic and homophobic” text messages between team members, the New York Times reported. Harvard, another Ivy League university, cancelled its men’s soccer season on Nov. 4 when officials found out that players had been making lewd rankings of women players for years. Columbia made its decision after BWOG, a student news website, published several text messages last week dating back to 2014 between team-mates that contained jokes about rape and the use of homophobic, racist and sexist slurs and comments.
Basket, NBA: Kawhi Leonard led the way with 24 points as San Antonio Spurs beat Miami Heat 94-90, yesterday. The Spurs led by 15 points at half-time, but the Heat improved their dismal shooting percentages – they had made only four of 11 free throws across the first two quarters – to set up a nervy finish. Leonard also took 12 rebounds for San Antonio, while Tony Parker provided nine assists as they improved their record to 7-3. Elsewhere, Tim Frazier’s successful free-throw with two seconds remaining secured a 106-105 victory for New Orleans Pelicans against Boston Celtics.