Assupol Tuks is close to retaining the Momentum National Club Championships title after they managed to beat Northwest Pukke yesterday by 125 runs at TUT to remain unbeaten after four games.
Today’s game against Crusaders (KwaZulu-Natal) is the team’s last remaining “hurdle”. Luckily they are playing at the Tuks Oval.
If Assupol-Tuks should lose things could get very interesting as it could mean that they, the Crusaders and Northwest Pukke all have just lost one game during the tournament. There is no final. So the organisers will possibly then have to resort to some formula to decide who the champion is.
Hopefully, things won’t come to that. Assupol Tuks impressed throughout the week with the clinical precision they went about doing the job on the field. What counts in the home team’s favour is that Kruger van Wyk (Assupol Tuks coach) as emphasised on countless occasions that any team is only as good as the last game they played. It's something the players have taken to heart.
Northwest Pukke won the toss and chose to bowl first. They restricted Assupol Tuks to 242/10 in their allotted 50 overs.
The bowlers laid the foundation for the Assupol Tuks victory when they took the first five wickets for just 60 runs. The destroyers were Ruan de Swardt (2 wickets), Gideon Peters (2 wickets) and Ruben Trumplemann (1 wicket). Northwest Pukke never really recovered from that setback and were bowled out for 117.
De Swardt was at his brilliant best taking 4/9 in just six overs.
Assupol Tuks did not get off to a great start in their innings. Jiveshan Pillay (13) and Tony de Zorzi (9) were both back in the pavilion with the score on 30.
Neil Brand (captain) showed for the umpteenth time that he has got big match temperament. He and Donovan Ferreira turned things around with 86 runs partnership for the third wicket. Ferreira who got the Assupol Tuks Player of the Year-award batted aggressively from the start scoring 56 runs from just 61 balls.
Brand lost his wicket with his score on 73 (84 balls). The wicketkeeper, Rubin Hermann, chipped in with a valuable inning of 41 runs of 25 balls. As a wicketkeeper, he made three catches.
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