Heinrich Klaasen scored 72 for Tuks cricket club to claim a seven-wicket victory against University of Free State (Kovsies CC) in the National Club Championships in Pretoria on Sunday.

Tuks won the toss, elected to field first and restricted Kovsies to a 132 in 40.2 overs, thanks to Ruben Claassen (3-27) and Migael Pretorius (2-8), who took five wickets between them.

Opening batsman Rubin Herman held his nerve to score 46 off 76, balls despite losing partners Blake Schraader and Tony de Zorzi for six and one respectively. Klaasen came to the crease and scored a 61-ball 72 not out (eight fours and two sixes for), to help the home side post 136-3 in 26.1 overs, and claim a convincing seven-wicket victory.

At Tuks Oval, defending champions North West Pukke clinched a three-wicket triumph over University of Stellenbosch ( Steinhoff Maties) in spite of a half-century by Ricardo Vasconcelos (51). Jovaun van Wyngaardt took four wickets for 23 runs, limiting the Western Cape side to 182 in their 50 overs.

Bantu Dandala chipped in with 2-30, while Hanco Olivier, JP le Roux and Wihan Lubbe all managed one wicket each.

Maties’ bowlers did well to maintain the pressure during Pukke’s reply, but Marques Ackerman, Edrich Lubbe and Janneman Malan hit a respective 51, 45 and 37 runs to see their side through in the end.

In the last match at TUT Oval, the Hollywoodbets Crusaders’ bowlers set up a convincing five-wicket win for their side when they faced the University of Fort Hare. Nicholas Hewer led the charge, taking 4-45, with Brandon Scullard and Jesse Smit adding 3-18 and 2-30 respectively to the tally to bowl the Alice based side out for 119 in just under 35 overs.

Jordan Grobbelaar, Riaan Minnie and Andile Mokgakane scored a respective 38, 26 and 24 runs for victory in only 26.4 overs.

Scorecard:

Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images