Assupol TuksCricket has been crowned as the best Varsity Cricket team in South Africa after winning the inaugural Varsity Cricket Week in Potchefstroom. Tuks won 6 out of their 7 group games to end at the top of the log after the group stages.

Tuks played against UJ in the first semi-final and beat the Johannesburg team by 59 runs and found themselves in the final at against Maties.

Tuks once again proved why they are the world champions and beat Maties by 5 wickets in a high-pressure match. Vincent Moore was the bowler of the match in the final with figures of 4-0-18-2 and Gerry Pike was awarded the batsmen of the match and man of the match award after top-scoring for Tuks with 50.

After winning this tournament TuksCricket will once again represent South Africa at the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals which will be taking place in India in October.

The TuksCricket, Head Coach, Pierre de Bruyn is very happy with his team’s win at the Varsity Cricket tournament last week. He is looking forward to TuksCricket going to India to represent South Africa and defend their title as the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals winners.

He commented, “We are obviously over the moon that we won the inaugural Varsity Cricket tournament in Potchefstroom and I am over the moon for the management and all players involved. I’m also very happy that we qualified for the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals again. We knew it from the start that there is another world cup in India this year after we won it in England the previous year and we are happy to be competing in it again. The goal for us is to bring that trophy back home with us from India.”

The TuksCricket Head Coach was also very happy with the standard and structure of the competition, he said, “The Varsity Cricket tournament will grow into an important feeder competition for franchises and ultimately the national team as well. It is magnificent twenty-twenty cricket. The atmosphere is great for students and young people to come and watch. The tournament in Potchefstroom was very well organised and I would like to congratulate Varsity Sports, Duitser Bosman and Francois Pienaar. It is a great format and a great stage for talented young cricketers to get exposure and I think it is going to be a very big tournament going forward.”

The TuksCricket captain, Heinrich Klaasen, magnificently led the Tuks team throughout the week and contributed an unbeaten 37 runs in the final where he hit the winning runs to hand Tuks the title.

He said, “The tournament was an unbelievable experience for the whole team and the vibe on and off the field was amazing throughout the week. The music on the field made it difficult to communicate with the rest of the fielders on the field but it proved that the team that was the most focused would came out on top. The hospitality of the tournament from the organisers was really good and the team was always handled as professionals. For the team to play on TV and show their abilities to the whole country was unbelievable. We can take a lot out of this as a team and now it is time to go and defend our title in India later this year.”

Assupol TuksCricket vice-captain, Aiden Markram, was awarded the player of the tournament award after having a great week. He finished as the tournament’s second highest run scorer and the batsman with the most 50s (four) including a 97 in the semi-final against UJ. Aiden also claimed 5 wickets during the week.

Aiden said, “I was fortunate that things went my way throughout the tournament because, as a batsman in the 20-over format, things don’t always go the way you planned. I knew that someone at the top of the order needed to give the team a good start and that if I could get to about 20 or 30 runs, I needed to take the responsibility to cash-in for the sake of the team. It was really tough to find the balance of getting the team off to a flying start but still being responsible to set a solid foundation for the team. I enjoyed the challenge of bowling and was already ready to sneak in an over or two to contain one end. I honestly never expected to bowl as much as I did though. It was a tough week, so it basically came down to mental toughness which we nailed and helped us get through the week.”

The Varsity Cricket week was an unbelievable experience for the Assupol TuksCricket team. It proved, once again, that hard work and dedication pays off and the Tuks players reaped the rewards of the weeks of training they put in for the tournament.