#Assupol TuksCricket: Assupol Tuks crowned Varsity Cricket champions in its centenary year

Posted on September 09, 2019

"I love it when a plan comes together" might have been one of the first thoughts to cross Assupol Tuks's head coach, Kruger van Wyk,' mind when his team won the Varsity Cricket Tournament in Potchefstroom on Saturday.
 
It was the fourth time in five years that Assupol Tuks won the Varsity Tournament.  What made it this time around more special however is that the feat has been accomplished when the club is celebrating a 100 years of cricketing excellence. 
 
Saturday nights final was contested between Assupol Tuks and UJ. It was unfortunate that the T20-final had to be reduced to an eight-over game due to faulty floodlights. But in part that proved the difference between Tuks and rest of the teams. Instead of getting worked up about what could have been, they just got on with the job on hand. That being to win. 
 
Ruben Trumpelmann practically won the final for Assupol Tuks in the first over by taking the wickets of Joshua Richards and Delano Potgieter with the first four balls he bowled.  Richards had been the mainstay in UJ's batting campaign throughout the tournament scoring 262 runs at an average of 43.7.
 
UJ never recovered from the early setback and was limited to 60/7 after eight overs. In spite of Assupol Tuks also losing two early wickets, there was never a sense of panic. In part that was mainly due to their captain, Neil Brand, who seems to be the personification of when the going gets tough the tough gets going. 
 
Brand did not have the best of starts to the tournament. In Assupol Tuks's first game against Maties, he was bowled for four runs. In the second game against UWC, he only scored 12 runs, but from then on there was no stopping him. 
 
In the semi-final against Maties, he scored 52 runs from 35 balls. During the final, he along with Ruan de Swardt kept a cool head to steer Assupol Tuks to victory. Brand scored an unbeaten 19 runs from 16 balls with De Swardt contributing with an unbeaten 17 runs from 12 balls which included hitting the winning runs with a four. Tuks won by eight wickets.
 
Admitting that he relishes the challenge of stepping up when it matters led to Brand being the player of the tournament for the second consecutive year. In nine games he scored 269 runs at an average of 38.4 as well as taking nine wickets (13.8 average). 
 
Brand is quick to emphasize that Assupol Tuks remained Varsity Champions is due to a team effort and not due to individual performances. 
 
"After losing to Maties in our first game. We had a serious heart to heart talk as to what went wrong. It ended with a pledge to one another that come what may we will have each other's back every time we played. 
 
"Results-wise Assupol Tuks remaining Varsity Champions might seem like a walk in the park but what people might not know is that we already started to prepare on 6 May. Absolutely nothing was left to chance." 
 
Assupol Tuks's Sean Gilson was the bowler of the tournament. He took 16 wickets at an average of 9.1.
- Author Wilhelm de Swardt

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