Tuks remains South Africa’s best club cricket team
The TuksCricket team made a clean sweep at last week's national championships to be crowned South Africa's best club team again.
Absolute perfection over five days of cricket is possibly the best way to describe the way Assupol Tuks played last week to retain the Momentum National Club Championships title for a second consecutive year.
On the final day, in what was a must-win game against the Crusaders from KwaZulu-Natal, the Assupol Tuks players again played with clinical precision to do what was needed to be done on the field. The result was that they won with 121 runs.
Assupol Tuks who batted first scored 282/4 thanks to brilliant batting display by Neil Brand with 120 runs off 131 balls and Jiveshan Pillay with 75 runs off 109 balls.
After that, Tuks’s bowlers did their part and the Crusaders were all out for 161.
To say that the team dominated the tournament would not be an exaggeration. In the first game, Assupol Tuks has beaten Wellington by seven wickets, followed by a 162-run victory over Yorkshire, a nine-wicket victory over Fort Hare and a 125 runs victory over Northwest Pukke.
The exciting part is that Tuks’s coach Kruger van Wyk believes that the team is capable of even more exceptional performances in the future.
“It was a long season, eight months to be precise, in which the players played a lot of cricket. I must admire them for the way they found the energy and passion to ‘step up to the plate’ one last time. A performance like this is what makes coaching worthwhile,” said Van Wyk after his team was crowned champion.
Van Wyk does not believe in singling out the performance of any player as for him cricket is all about the team. But he can’t help to be excited about the way his captain, Neil Brand, played throughout the tournament.
Leading by example seems to come naturally to Brand. Brand impacted in each game – scoring 72 runs against Yorkshire, taking 4/14 with his off-spin deliveries against the Fort Hare University, hitting 73 runs against Northwest Pukke and then topping it all by scoring 120 runs against the Crusaders.
“Neil is an unbelievable player and I hope the decision makers in franchise cricket start to realise it. If ever there was a player worthy of a professional contract it is Neil,” said Van Wyk.
The coach was equally full of praise for the way Migael Pretorius played. He played his last game for Assupol Tuks in this tournament as he got contracted by the Lions. Pretorius bowled like a player possessed taking 5/18 in seven overs in the game against the Crusaders.
“It is never nice to lose a player. But the fact that Migael got a professional contract proves that we are doing something right,” said Kruger.
Ruan de Swardt impressed with his bowling and batting exploits throughout the tournament.
He was the perfect all-rounder not only excelling with bat and ball and Van Wyk is also convinced that he was the best fielder at the tournament.
“I am impressed by how his played improved over the last three months. He had a difficult first year with us, but he battled through refusing to give up. He is now mentally and physically a much stronger player,” van Wyk concluded.
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