Ken Borland

Aiden Markram has been crying out for an island of calm amidst all the hurly-burly and media attention of leading the South Africa U19 team to their Junior World Cup title last month in Dubai. And he seems to have found it judging by the assured, unbeaten half-century he scored to carry Assupol Tukkies to victory in the opening game of the Red Bull Campus Cricket finals against Steinhoff Maties on Tuesday.

The man of the match scored 50 not out off 45 balls as the University of Pretoria cruised to their moderate target of 119 with all of 11 deliveries remaining. Markram had the measure of the Stellenbosch University bowlers from the outset, hitting three fours in the first over of the innings, bowled by Boland cricketer Riyaad Henry.

But with the hardness of the new ball rapidly disappearing, he was content to just pick up mostly ones and twos on a slow autumnal pitch at the L.C. de Villiers Oval.

It was obvious that the powerful, tall right-hander is a young batsman who has learnt to play in different conditions, the pitches in the United Arab Emirates, where he was the Player of the Series with 370 runs at an astonishing average of 123, being similar to those in Pretoria at this time of year.

“The pitch was quite slow and it was hard to hit through the lines, you had to put the massive drives away,” Markram said after his impressive innings.

Markram was one of the hottest properties in South African cricket after the ICC U19 World Cup triumph, but he was content to stay in northern Gauteng, where he was born and where he schooled at Pretoria Boys’ High.

He believes that Tukkies, the national club champions and winners of the Northerns league for the last five years, will raise the bar when it comes to developing his game.

“I’m very happy here, the training is awesome, at very high intensity, and this is where my game will improve,” Markram says.

All the media attention and official engagements after their triumph in Dubai didn’t leave Markram with much leeway when it came to time to practise. SA U19 coach Ray Jennings likes to police his charges closely, but now Markram is no longer under his watch.

Fortunately, the Tukkies coach, Pierre de Bruyn, is a protégé of Jennings’ and the national junior coach has said before how confident he is that Markram’s game will develop even more at the University of Pretoria.

“I’m tired and the body’s a bit stiff, but I’m doing what I love and it’s never a mission to wake up in the morning and go and play cricket. It’s been hectic and for two weeks after the Junior World Cup I really struggled with the bat. But I’ve remembered not to complicate it and I’m happy with the start in this competition.

“We have nothing to complain about because one of our team-mates, Regardt Verster, is fighting for his life in hospital after a car crash and we’re doing this for him,” Markram said.

Assupol Tukkies, the national club champions, powered to a seven-wicket victory off the first ball of the penultimate over against the Steinhoff Maties in the opening match of the Red Bull Campus Cricket finals at the L.C. de Villiers Oval at the University of Pretoria on Tuesday.

The comfortable Tukkies victory was set up by the skill of their bowling attack, backed by the intensity and discipline of their fielding, which limited Maties to just 118 for four in their 20 overs after they had won the toss and elected to bat first.

The target was a stroll in the park for Tukkies as Aiden Markram, the captain of the victorious South African team at the U19 World Cup, blasted 50 not out off 45 balls and was well supported by Gerry Pike (27) and Theunis de Bruyn (30).

The Maties innings was set back from the outset as openers Gideon Conradie (0) and Emile Kriek (1) were dismissed in the first two overs by Vincent Moore and De Bruyn respectively.

It meant the Maties batsmen had to rebuild carefully and, although Keegan Petersen and Jean Bredenkamp added 34, it took them seven overs to do it.

It meant they had to resort to some desperate late hitting.

Petersen fell for 30 off 35 balls in the 16^th over, caught in the deep off spinner David Mogotlane, while the death overs were well-policed by pacemen Moore and Corbin Bosch.

Dewald Botha claimed two fours and a six in scoring 41 not out off 40 balls, while Byron Boshoff made 17 not out off 13 balls to at least give the Maties something to bowl at.

But the tall and powerful Markram took custody of the run-chase from the outset, taking three fours off Riyaad Henry’s opening over.

Pike picked up three fours as he scored his 27 off 37 balls and he and Markram added 53 off 58 balls for the first wicket and ensured there would be no jitters in chasing a moderate total.

When Pike was dismissed, caught at long-off off spinner Niel Botha, De Bruyn came in and continued with the impressive form he had shown last weekend for the Titans in the premier four-day domestic competition.

De Bruyn slammed two mighty sixes and hit a four as he scored 30 off just 22 balls and took Tukkies to a hundred in the 16^th over.

His demise came thanks to an excellent caught-and-bowled effort by Dewald Botha, but Sean Dickson came in and hit two quick boundaries to ensure there would be no late flutters.

Markram reached his half-century as he hit the winning run through extra cover, Tukkies winning with 11 balls remaining.

The University of Pretoria cricket family were then able to pour out on to the L.C. de Villiers Oval and celebrate being halfway to qualifying for the Red Bull Campus Cricket finals in London in July.

Maties are contemplating having to win both matches on Wednesday in order to qualify.

http://www.redbullcampuscricket.com/southafrica/latest/the-battle-has-begun-day-1/

Red Bull Campus Cricket is into its third year and is growing rapidly in achieving its goal of making boyhood dreams of playing senior cricket a reality for all those students who missed out on making age-group teams and feel left out of “the system”.

Tukkies and Maties, who meet in the local T20 finals at the University of Pretoria on Tuesday and Wednesday, are the first South African teams to take part as Red Bull Campus Cricket expands into a truly global competition.

The Pretoria and Stellenbosch campuses were chosen because they were the two finalists in the national universities week held in December.
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who competed in the first Asian finals in 2012, were joined by Bangladesh, England and Australia’s champion university teams last year and, now, 2014 sees the entrance of South Africa and the West Indies.

When Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter sat down on the SuperSport Park outfield with his team as the sun disappeared over Wierda Park after the third day of their final Sunfoil Series match against the Warriors, he no doubt stressed the importance of finishing the season well.

His team did that, fighting hard on the final day of the match for the second weekend in a row, beating the Warriors by 87 runs, to finish in a respectable fourth place on the Sunfoil Series log.

A fortnight ago, the Titans were firmly anchored in last place on the log, 13.60 points behind the Highveld Lions. Victories over the Knights and Warriors meant they leapfrogged both their neighbours and the Eastern Cape side, finishing just 5.88 points off the third-placed Dolphins.

Walter will be the first to admit his team erred badly in the opening stages of the four-day competition, especially in terms of their batting. Limited-overs cricket is clearly this Titans team’s strength, and it was perhaps understandable they took a while to get into occupying-the-crease mode.

But by the end of the campaign, a new four-day modus operandi was being implemented and the depth of the squad was also being established with several fringe players getting a run and many of them doing well enough to suggest they will be part of the Titans’ plans next season.

“There were a couple of things to get excited about at the end of the season, we were playing a better brand of four-day cricket and the right strategies were being implemented. We don’t want to make it too complicated, it’s a very simple game plan and it’s just a matter of executing it,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

“Young guys have also been doing well at the back end of the season, which shows we do have some depth and able replacements in most areas. The Cobras won the competition because their senior players stood up, but their depth also performed. It’s important that we improve our depth.”

Many critics questioned whether the Titans have the bowlers to succeed in four-day cricket, but they took 20 wickets in their last two matches on relatively flat pitches.

David Wiese, with 30 wickets in six matches at an average of 17.56, did a magnificent job for the Titans, while Shaun von Berg and Marchant de Lange did much for the connoisseurs of leg-spin and fast bowling respectively to look forward to next season.

“How David has grown from a skill point of view has been one of the highlights of the season for me,” Walter said. “He has outstanding skill, he’s good with the new ball or, as he showed against the Warriors, with a 65-70 over ball. So he’s able to bowl in different phases of the game and the key is his accuracy and consistency.

“Marchant showed his old self in patches, he makes it very uncomfortable for the batsman and even guys with a hundred were jumping around. That’s obviously exciting and he can be a real impact player for us moving forward, as will Shaun.

“By his own admission, Shaun struggled with his rhythm on the final day against the Warriors, but I’m very happy with the way he bowled this season. The next step in his development  is knowing what to do when batsmen come after him or when the ball’s not coming out great,” Walter said.

The alleged lack of batting depth in the Titans also seems to be overstated when one considers the runs made by Theunis de Bruyn, Graeme van Buuren, Grant Thomson, Cobus Pienaar and Qaasim Adams in recent weeks.

Young opener Ernest Kemm also had his day in the sun with 62 on the third day of the match against the Warriors.

Walter said that the competition for batting places next season would be healthy for the team.

“Theunis looked really good and it’s great that we have a couple of options in terms of opening batsmen. Dean Elgar won’t be around for every game, so we need to make sure that we have back-up. We have able replacements and they’ll also be pushing Heino Kuhn,” the coach said.

Pienaar and Thomson have also produced valuable bowling performances for the Titans and that only adds to their value, while the strong finish to the season made by Adams means the stocks are healthy in the middle-order.

“The four-day victories where you go the distance to win and put in the hard yards are definitely the most satisfying. And the fact we shared the Momentum One-Day Cup with a set of young players mixed in with the experience and had a good end to the Sunfoil Series with the same mix, is very encouraging,” Walter said.