Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns were held to an unexpected 0-0 draw against a plucky Ajax Cape Town outfit at Athlone Stadium in the Absa Premiership on Wednesday.
Perhaps a little surprisingly, Ajax Cape Town looked by far the better side early on against table-topping Mamelodi Sundowns.
If it wasn't for a magnificent save from Denis Onyango, the Urban Warriors would've been a goal up in just the 10th minute when Prince Nxumalo found some space in the box to send a point-blank header towards goal, but he was denied by the Uganda international.
Ajax held the upper hand for much of the opening half and Erwin Isaacs should have given the home side the lead, but somehow manage to put his shot from inside the six-yard box over the bar.
Sundowns best, and pretty much only, chance of the first-half came on the stroke of the half time whistle when Hlompho Kekana sent a powerful free-kick from long range into the crossbar, but overall the visitors struggled to settle into their usual possession-based game.
The sides cancelled each other out after the break, with the Brazilians struggling to find holes in the Ajax defence but did a much better job keeping the home side at bay.
The result was that very few chances were created in the first 25 minutes of the half, but the hosts did look the more likely to create something.
However, it was Sundowns that came closest to breaking the deadlock on the 70th minute when Soumahoro Bangaly rose above the defence to head a Keagan Dolly cross towards goal, but he was denied by a fine save from Anssi Jaakkola.
The visitors looked much better after they abandoned their possession tactics and looked to hit Ajax on the counter, but even then they found gaps few and far between as the match petered out to a 0-0 draw.