Assupol Tuks reclaims VarsityCricket title
Tuks's VarsityCricket team took proper revenge after last year's defeat in the final of the VarsityCricket tournament when they beat Northwest Pukke over the past weekend to be crowned as the new champion.
Assupol Tuks Cricket is the best club team in South Africa.
After the weekend’s VarsityCricket final in Potchefstroom which saw Assupol Tuks beat Northwest Pukke by five wickets, there can be no arguing this fact.
Northwest Pukke batted first and scored 154/4 setting Tuks the challenge to score 155. The winning runs were scored with two balls to spare.
The last time Assupol Tuks lost any tournament they competed in was exactly a year ago, in the 2017 VarsityCricket final. Northwest Pukke managed to beat Tuks with seven balls to spare.
Since that setback, the team from Pretoria went on to win the Momentum National Club Championships. They also dominated the various Northerns Cricket Union (NCU) leagues ending 2017 on another highlight by claiming the South African Universities title.
One of the main reasons for the team’s success is not only the ability of the coaches to spot true talent but also to help the players to play to the best of their abilities when it matters.
Before the Varsity Tournament TuksCricket head coach Kruger van Wyk said that it would take a real team effort for his team to succeed. The players certainly did not disappoint. In the nine games played six batsmen managed at various times to play a crucial inning and five bowlers managed to take more than five wickets during the tournament.
In such brilliant display of teamwork, it might sound unfair to highlight the performance of just one player, but Neil Brand’s teammates will agree that he was brilliant. For the duration of the tournament, he gave an exemplary performance as the captain leading from the front. In nine innings he scored 300 runs at an average of 42.9. He was justly the one to score the winning runs for Tuks in the final hitting a four in the last over with just two balls to spare. Brand was equally impressive as a bowler taking nine wickets.
It was no surprise that he received the Player of the Tournament Award.
In spite of scoring 59 runs off 57 balls in the final Brand refuses to take sole credit for his team’s victory. He is of the opinion that it was Corbin Bosch’s innings of 41 runs from 21 balls that swung the game.
“That six Corbin hit in the second last over clinched the game for us,” Brand concluded.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
