Ken Borland

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Founded in 1866, the University of Stellenbosch, known as the Steinhoff Maties, are one of the oldest cricket clubs in South Africa and have been one of the most consistent performers in tertiary institutes cricket for several years.

They lost to Tukkies in the hard-fought 2013/14 final of the University Sports South Africa A Weekin Potchefstroom in December, their second appearance in the final in the last three years.

Maties have come off an unbeaten season in the Boland Premier League, winning the title for the third year in a row, and they have also made five appearances in the National Club Championships, finishing in second place to Tukkies in 2012 and to Constantia of Western Province in 1997.

Several of their players have donned Boland senior colours, most notably batting star Keegan Petersen, captain Emile Kriek, Dewald Botha, Jean Bredenkamp, Leon le Roux and Riyaad Henry.

The University of Pretoria cricket team, known as the Assupol Tukkies, have dominated club cricket in South Africa recently, but now they are looking to make their presence felt on a world stage as they participate in the inaugural South African finals of the Red Bull Campus Cricket Tournament.

Tukkies have won South Africa’s National Club Championships for the last two years, they have been the champion university five times since 2006 and have totally dominated the premier league of their province, Northerns, winning the title for the last five years, going unbeaten for 85 matches.

But the Red Bull Campus Cricket T20 Tournament provides new challenges for Tukkies and coach Pierre de Bruyn is unequivocal about how motivated his team are to succeed when they take on old rivals Stellenbosch University, known as the Steinhoff Maties, in the three-match finals in Pretoria on April 8 and 9.

“To be the first South African team to play in the World Finals of Red Bull Campus Cricket is a huge incentive for us. It’s an opportunity to play on a world stage, this is the Varsity World Cup. Just to get there and be one of the eight countries playing in England will be huge and we’ll be going there to win it,” De Bruyn says.

By rights, Tukkies will be favourites to be the South African qualifiers, given their recent dominance over Maties, but De Bruyn is wary of writing Stellenbosch University off.

“It’s never easy playing against Maties and it’s always been a big rivalry against them, a very competitive edge.”

“If we were playing long-form cricket against them I’d be a lot more confident, but in this format it’s always 50/50. You just need one or two individuals to come off and good sides get beaten, and Maties certainly have guys to make it very difficult for us,” the ex-Titans, Dolphins and Norfolk cricketer says.

De Bruyn is far removed from the reserved type of coach and he freely admits that he only had a relatively small amount of talent as a player, but he thrived on challenges and was the sort of tenacious cricketer who really bugged the opposition.

He is in charge of nurturing some of the best talent in South Africa and one of the first lessons he teaches them is to suck it up when times are tough.

Amongst the exciting talents in the Tukkies team are Theunis de Bruyn, the top-order batsman who turned 21 in October and has come of age this season, scoring half-centuries for the Titans on both his T20 Challenge debut and four-day Sunfoil Series debut.

Left-arm paceman Vincent Moore also played for the Titans and knocked over 10 batsmen in three four-day matches at an average of just 23.80.

Two of the stars of South Africa’s ICC U19 World Cup triumph, batsman and captain Aiden Markram and fast bowler Corbin Bosch, have also enrolled at Tukkies and those overseeing their development are perfectly happy that they are at the right place to make the most of their talent.

Batsman Sean Dickson, wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen and leg-spinning all-rounder GC Pretorius are also showing that they could belong in franchise cricket with their performances in the CSA Provincial competitions.

The one notable absentee from the Tukkies squad is opening batsman and left-arm spinner Regardt Verster, a member of the 2012 SA U19 team, who is constantly in the thoughts of his team-mates as he recovers from a serious car accident.

The form book is clearly in favour of the University of Pretoria as they have won the last three matches against the Stellenbosch students. They won the 2012 National Club Championships final by six wickets and beat them by four wickets in round-robin play in 2013. They then beat the Maties by 14 runs on the Duckworth /Lewis Method in the final of the SA Universities Week in December.

University of Pretoria squad: Gerry Pike, Aiden Markram, Theunis de Bruyn, Sean Dickson, Heinrich Klaasen, Johan Wessels, Tian Koekemoer, GC Pretorius, Corbin Bosch, Vincent Moore, David Mogotlane, Ruben Claasen, Bantu Dandala.

http://www.redbullcampuscricket.com/southafrica/latest/red-bull-campus-cricket-south-africa-tukkies/

South Africa coach Russell Domingo believes his team is “one of seven or eight” that can win the ICC World T20, despite suffering a hiding at the hands of Australia in Centurion on Friday night to lose their T20 series 2-0.

The Proteas leave for Bangladesh on Saturday and play two warm-up games against Bangladesh A and Pakistan before opening their World T20 campaign against Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka on March 22.

“There are seven or eight teams that can win the T20 World Cup and we’re one of them,” Domingo told a press conference in Centurion after the loss to Australia by six wickets with five overs to spare.

“It’s not a bad way to go into the tournament because the pressure won’t be there of being one of a couple of obvious favourites. We need a couple of players to do well, to have outstanding tournaments, and for the team to do well in the big moments and then we’ll be right in contention,” Domingo told a press conference in Centurion after the loss to Australia by six wickets with five overs to spare.

Domingo brushed off concerns that South Africa’s performances against Australia were indicative of a loss of confidence in the team.

“We’ve played good T20 cricket in the last year-and-a bit so there’s no need to make drastic changes. T20 cricket does have a lot to do with confidence, but we’ve been to world cups before extremely confident … ’’

The coach said the return of injured fast bowlers Dale Steyn (hamstring) and Morne Morkel (shoulder) would make a huge difference to the side. Both pacemen are expected to be fit for South Africa’s warm-up games in Bangladesh.

“This series has provided some answers for us. It has shown the impact of not having Dale and Morne. You can’t buy that quality and experience and it has highlighted how important they are,” Domingo said.

The coach said they would “not be losing any sleep” over the decline in the fielding standards of the team because “we have always been a quality fielding unit”.

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket/proteas/proteas-can-win-world-twenty20-1.1661838#.UzMf-6iSy9A

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis warned on Friday that nobody’s place was certain for the ICC World T20 after his side were hammered by six wickets with five overs to spare by Australia in their T20 international at Centurion.

South Africa leave for Bangladesh and the ICC World T20 on Saturday and will enter the tournament with little expectation judging by their recent form.

“Having guys in form will be really important if we’re going to do well in the T20 World Cup. If people aren’t on top of their game then we’ll definitely look at other options, nobody is a certainty,” Du Plessis told a press conference after the match.

Neither Dale Steyn nor Morne Morkel played in the T20 series against Australia and their stand-ins – the likes of Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Wayne Parnell and Beuran Hendricks – were unable to reproduce their domestic form against what Du Plessis described as “a powerhouse batting line-up”.

“Our bowlers made a lot of mistakes tonight – we bowled the wrong lines and lengths, but defending less than 130 makes it difficult for the bowlers. I wanted them to bowl as straight as possible, but there was way too much square-of-the-wicket strokeplay. But having Dale and Morne back will be a huge bonus,” Du Plessis admitted.

The captain also conceded that both the batting and fielding had not been up to scratch on Friday night.

“We made a lot of mistakes with the bat and we didn’t lay a good base for our big hitters; David Miller and Albie Morkel need to come in when we’re on top. The pitch was quite tough for the first six overs, but we need to adapt and getting out caught like we did was soft dismissals. It sums up our batting effort and nine times out of 10 you’re not going to win games with soft dismissals,” Du Plessis said.

South Africa have also been the international benchmark in terms of fielding, but since the departure of Rob Walter as the fielding coach, they have often looked lethargic and have not taken several crucial catches through the summer.

The one positive from the heavy defeat was the bowling of leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who took two for 21 in his four overs and showed that he certainly won’t be one of the passengers in Bangladesh.

“Imran bowled really well, which is a really good sign for us. He’s going to play a huge part in our success in the T20 World Cup, on those pitches, in those conditions,” Du Plessis acknowledged.

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket/proteas/no-one-s-place-is-safe-faf-1.1661821#.UycTV6iSy9A