The Assupol Tuks cricketer, Bonga Chepkonga, is possibly one of the very few students who can claim that one bad exam changed their life for the better.

From Sunday he will be representing the team at the Red Bull Campus Cricket Tournament in Dubai. It is the first time he will play an international tournament. It all came about due to one study mishap.

It happened in August. The first year BSc quantity surveying student knew after he handed in his exam paper that he was not going to get the marks he had hoped for. That depressed him as he is serious about his studies. 

"I needed to do something to clear my mind and get rid of some of my frustration. Sort of on the spur of the moment I decided to go to the cricket nets to bowl a few balls. It is something I had not done for quite a while. Eight months to be precise," explains Chepkonga.

Last year he was in line to represent KwaZulu-Natal at the Khaya Majola Coke Week. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, he twisted his ankle during a runup in training. He sustained a stress fracture. For all practical purposes, he stopped playing cricket. 

"In the back of my mind, I always thought about playing again, but I kept postponing it due to my study commitments. I certainly did not have high ambitions as a cricketer. I would have been happy to play for Tuks's third team.

"I was doing target bowling on my own. I did not realise that Curtley (Diesel) was watching. After a while, he came up to me and asked if I would like to bowl a few balls to the batsmen training. Naturally, I did not mind."

To make a long story short. Diesel was impressed with what he saw and spoke to Kruger van Wyk (Assupol TuksCricket head coach). Chepkonga got an invite to start training with the team. A few weeks later he was part of the team that won the Varsity Tournament in Potchefstroom. 

According to Chepkonga, because he is only bowling medium-fast deliveries, he needs to outwit the batsmen. He seems to be succeeding. Yesterday Assupol Tuks played a final warmup game against the club's second-stringers. One of his deliveries was hit for a six, but with the very next delivery, the batsman was back on his way to the dressing room.

"I first bowled a slowish delivery. When it got hit for a six, I knew I had to do something different. I bargained that the batsman was expecting another slow delivery, so I surprised him bowling faster. He got a top edge to it and was caught.

"That is what makes bowling exciting. It boils down to a duel between you and the batsmen all the time. As a bowler, you need to have that 'ace up your sleeve' at all times. I love it. "