University tournament a great success for Border region

AN EXCITING week of university cricketing action came to an end as the University Sports South Africa (Ussa) Cricket B Week concluded with an awards dinner at Buffalo Park on Friday night.

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) were crowned champions of the cricket week after they defeated Vaal University of Technology (VUT) in the final to return straight back to the A week after being relegated last year.

The University of Fort Hare B team ended their week on a high to claim third place in their division and will look to try improve on that performance next year.

Local side Walter Sisulu University (WSU) Buffalo City enjoyed a fantastic cricket week of crushing all of their opposition in the D division before playing C division University of Limpopo (Mafikeng) on the last day, beating them soundly.

This allowed them to finish in fifth position overall and they can look forward to making a push for promotion to the A Week in next year’s competition.

The night also saw some individual awards handed out, with Border players past and present sweeping all the awards.

CPUT’s Xolile Baka was named player of the tournament after a fantastic effort that saw him contribute 183 runs at an average of 61, with a highest score of 92 and claim nine wickets at an average of 5.44 to his team’s cause during the week.

Baka went to school in Alice and was formerly part of the Border Academy team.

“It was amazing to get the award as I didn’t expect it,” Baka said.

“It was nice for me to come to my home region and perform well.”

Baka’s teammate Hlamelo Notoko was named bowler of the tournament, picking up 15 wickets over the week for just 67 runs off 15.3 overs at an average of 4.46 and best bowling figures of 6/10.

Notoko is also a local lad having attended Hudson Park High School and representing Border at various age-group levels.

WSU’s Xolisani Sodumo rounded out the individual awards by claiming the batsman of the week award.

Sodumo was in sparkling form having scored an average of 107 runs across his five innings and with a highest score of 103 not out in the final game against Mafikeng.

The opener certainly led the WSU batting effort from the front.

With the region hopeful of hosting one of the national age-group cricket weeks next year, this was a good trial run for Border Cricket and they can be proud of having hosted a top week of cricketing action.

“For Border Cricket it was a great honour to co-host the tournament with Fort Hare and we would like to thank Fort Hare for the opportunity,” amateur manager at Border Cricket, Deon Muller said.

“The support we got from East London cricket and the schools hosting matches was fantastic and we couldn’t have done it without them, so we are very grateful,” he said.

“All in all, it was a successful tournament and a fantastic week of cricket and it went off perfectly,” Muller concluded.