Assupol Tuks has all but qualified for the Varsity T20-Cricket Semi-finals having won four of their first five games in Potchefstroom.
They still need to play the Madibaz and Northwest tomorrow. One victory ought to do it for Assupol Tuks. The team from Port Elizabeth is currently lagging second from the bottom of the log.
It said that defeat can be a blessing in disguise and judging by what has happened, it seems to be true. On Monday in their first game of the tournament Assupol Tuks lost by five wickets against Maties.
Since then there has no stopping Neil Brand (Assupol Tuks captain) and his "troops". In their next game, they managed to beat CUT by six wickets. It only got better. Assupol Tuks beat UWC by 31 runs, UJ by 114 runs and this morning UCT got thrashed by nine wickets. This dominance led to the team gaining four, oh so, valuable bonus points.
Before the start of the Varsity Tournament Kruger van Wyk (Assupol Tuks head coach) emphasized that tournaments are never won by relying on one or two players to star with bat or ball as there is no "I" in spelling team.
For Van Wyk winning boils down to any player being able to step up to the plate at any given moment. That is what has been happening.
Jiveshan Pillay is currently one of the best batsmen at the tournament having scored 185 runs in four games at an average of 61.7. His best performance was yesterday against UJ when he scored 65 runs from 54 balls.
As has become the norm since last year, Brand is again leading by example. He was in devasting form against UJ scoring 62 runs from only 43 balls. He then went on to take 3/7 with his off-spin deliveries. It led to him getting the player of the match award.
Sean Murray Gilson is one of the tournaments foremost bowlers having taken ten wickets so far in five games at an average of 8.3. In three games he has had a three-wicket haul. Against Maties, his bowling figures was 3/25, Cut 3/5 and UCT 3/11.
Other players to have impressed so far is Ruben Trumpelmannn taking 2/16 against Maties; Donovan Ferreira hitting 51 runs from 23 balls against UJ; Francois van Heerden scoring 44 from 34 balls against UCT; Ruan de Swardt taking 2/18 against UCT and Nkosinathi Msiza taking 2/15 against UJ.
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