All-round Assupol march to title win

Left-arm medium-pacer Vincent Moore and fast bowler Corbin Bosch shared seven wickets between them to help Assupol TUKS claim the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals title with a 40-run win over Jamaica Inter-Collegiate Sports Association on Saturday.

Moore struck off the second ball of the JICSA innings, dismissing opener Oraine Williams for a duck in a chase of 189. The rest of the JICSA top order kept the chase, but Assupol chipped away, dismissing Herman Henry and Oshane Walters to leave the side at 49 for 3 in the sixth over. Cassius Burton and Delbert Gayle then stabilized the chase with a brisk 77-run partnership. The pair were watchful in the early overs of their partnership, but began catching up with the required scoring rate after the halfway mark of the innings, hitting regular boundaries. The chase received a big boost in the 15th over, when Burton struck two fours and as many sixes in a 25-run over but their hopes of claiming the title began crumbling in the next over.

Burton's dismissal in the 16th over triggered a period that saw JICSA lose six wickets for 19 runs. Three of those wickets fell to Moore, who also struck twice in the 19th over as JICSA stumbled to 148 for 9 at close. Bosch's 3 for 29 helped him finish as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament.

Earlier, a 40-ball 61 from Johan Wessels anchored the Assupol innings after they opted to bat and lost two early wickets. Wessels first added 54 with Aiden Markram for the third wicket and then stitched a 52-run fourth-wicket partnership with Sean Dickson.

Wessels fell in the 15th over with the score on 121 for 4 and the final push in the Assupol innings came from a swift sixth-wicket partnership between Dickson and Tian Koekemoer, as they added 38 off 17 balls to take Assupol to a strong 188 for 6.

"Tuks deserve all the accolades for an excellent campaign," CSA Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said. "Coming so soon after our Coca-Cola national Under-19 side won the ICC World Title suggests that our pipeline programmes are running well and that our amateur cricket is in a pretty healthy state. Congratulations also to all our development personnel for the great work they do.

"A significant feature of Tuks' triumph was the depth in their squad. They had four of the top eight batsmen in the tournament while Corbin Bosch and Ruben Claassen were the two leading wicket-takers. I congratulate the players and team management on their well merited triumph."