Yorkton鈥檚 cricket team stemmed a three-game losing slide July 25 with a dominant performance over Regina鈥檚 Bengal Tigers Cricket Club.
Yorkers captain Mandeep Singh won the coin toss and chose to take the field first anticipating having drier conditions when the time came to bat might be an advantage.
With an excellent bowling attack and solid fielding, Yorkton quickly dispatched two of Regina鈥檚 first three batsmen in the third and fourth overs with six and zero runs respectively.
Opening batsman M. A. Islam held on for almost half the innings, but only generated nine runs on 29 balls.
Fourth man down, M. A. Zahid very quickly put up a half century on 30 balls, but was caught out by Yorkton wicket keeper Kush Dalwadi in the 14th over ending the threat.
The rest of the team was stymied only tacking on 39 more runs by the end of the 20 overs with nine wickets gone.
In all, a strong bowling an fielding performance held the Tigers to 124.
Dalwadi was on fire for the Yorkers, taking three catches and running out another batsman for a total of four wickets.
Although 125 was not a massive total to chase, Yorkton has struggled this season to put together a balanced fielding and batting performance in the same match.
That would not prove to be the case Saturday. As in the previous week鈥檚 loss to the Regina Lions, the opening combination of captain Singh and vice captain Akhil Kucheriya was a lucrative partnership. Kucheriya quickly put up 34 runs on just 18 balls including five fours and one six before being caught out by the Tigers wicket keeper.
Singh went out the same way in the 11th over, but not before tallying 27 runs of his own.
Hitesh Mankotia and Anurag Salaria put in solid performances in replacement of the two openers scoring 16 and 20 runs respectively to end the chase after just 13.4 overs.
鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of those boys,鈥� said Thom Barker, president of the Yorkton Cricket Association. 鈥淭hey put it altogether on the weekend and came up with a big win.
鈥淲hen we play like that, we can hold our own with just about any club team in Saskatchewan.鈥�
The win gives the Yorkers a 3-3 for the season.
鈥淲ith three matches left to play, the playoffs are still on the table,鈥� Barker said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got the talent; we just need to keep our bowling and batting in sync.鈥�
