Assupol TUKS, 2012 Club Champs victors
Francois le Clus scored a dazzling and unbeaten 103 runs to lead Assupol Tuks to victory in their final match of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) National Club Championships against Steinhoff Maties at SuperSport Park on Saturday. Tuks remain unbeaten in this competition and win yet another trophy for Northerns Cricket Union.
Maties won the toss and elected to bat first on the warmest day of the competition. Omphile Ramela was their best performer, playing an excellent knock of 96 runs to get his side to 217/8 in 50 overs. Tuks' captain, Maurice Aronstam led from the front, returning exceptional figures of four wickets for just 19 runs in his 10 overs.
Tuks lost only four wickets in their reply for their total of 220 runs with Douglas Hewitt contributing an invaluable 86 runs to help Le Clus get their side to victory and the championship title.
Tuks coach Pierre de Bruyn is over the moon at his squad's performance throughout the week. "I'm a very proud coach today, the team have worked extremely hard and have made many sacrifices before and during this tournament to get us here," he said.
When asked about what it is that they did differently this year, De Bruyn, who has 15 years of first-class cricket under his own belt, said that the most important thing that was done was learning from their past mistakes and setting the right goals.
"We learned a lot from last year, we learned to finish our games and to do more to prepare for this competition during the season rather than start concentrating on training with a few weeks to go to the start. We set our goals and made the plans that would ensure that the goals would bear fruit. We came into this tournament wanting to be unbeaten and, through the team's hard work and focus, we did it! The momentum of every win took us into the next match and the next until we reached the final and went all the way," he continued.
De Bruyn was happy to add another trophy to the Notherns Cricket Union's already growing trophy cabinet from this season. The Nashua Titans won the 2012 MiWay T20 Challenge and SuperSport Series trophies, while Northerns women won the CSA Women's Provincial League title for the second year in a row and Northerns men took the CSA First Class Domestic One-Day title.
"The players set very high standards for themselves and prepared well, we're all really happy to add the last trophy of the season to the Northerns Cricket Union cabinet, we've done really well this season on a professional and amateur level and this last trophy is the cherry on the cake for us. We are in good company," De Bruyn concluded.
