Tuks thwart Pukke in CSA National Club Champs

In a nail-biting end to the 2017 CSA National Club Championships in Pretoria, Pukke narrowly lost their club cricket crown to hosts, UP-Tuks, in an enthralling week of cricket action.

Edrich Lubbe’s Pukke side played great cricket throughout the tournament, digging deep to pull off wins but, in the end, came unstuck against the eventual winners, Tuks, by 1 wicket in a must-win match. In this match, Pukke posted a meagre 188/9 in their 50 overs.

Tuks also struggled, though, as they scrapped through, thanks to 42 from Ruan de Swardt and 32* from Ruben Claassen.

All Pukke’s bowlers were excellent with Bantu Dandala and JP le Roux picking up two wickets apiece.

Pukke won all their other matches against Maties, Kovsies, the Hollywoodbets Crusaders and the University of Fort Hare.

In the end, Tuks did just enough to claim the title, even though they    were defeated by Maties on the final day. It was not to be for NWU Pukke’s cricket side, which had tasted Varsity Cricket success at the beginning of the year. This time, they had to settle for second place and captain Lubbe felt it would have been better for his side if things fell into place at crucial moments. ‘Coming second is not the nicest but the consistency has been good for the past few months.

‘We probably did not play our best cricket throughout the five days here. Our best performance was against Tuks when we did our best to defend a small total on a flat wicket,’ he said.