It may not have been a fairytale start for the Yorkton Yorkers during their first official matches in Regina's cricket league, but two respectable performances have the club's spirits high after exceeding their own modest expectations in the club's quick rise to a full fledged team.
"Considering it was our first time out, we did really well," said Faisal Anwar, Yorkers captain. "Now we know what we need to work on."
Anwar was pleased overall with the team's bowling and batting and was surprised by the quality of wicket keeping. He identified fielding, specifically fielder placement and execution of catches as the priority for the team moving forward. Vice-captain, Raja Ramachandran, added wicket running as another thing the Yorkers could fine tune going into their next matches. "We need to communicate better," he said. "We left a few runs out there."
In the first game, the Yorkers came up against a Royals club that featured some great batsman. The Yorkers did themselves few favours having several opportunities to get these important two wickets, but dropping at least five fly balls.
By the time the Yorkers got to bat they had already allowed 200 runs, an insurmountable amount of runs to come back from for the newcomers resulted in a 107 run win for the Royals in a tough first match for Anwar and the Yorkers.
In the second game up against the Jaguars, the Yorkers found their bats and their fielding legs, putting in a much more promising performance in the second match of their doubleheader.
Yorkers batsmen, going first led by Tinku Sharma's half-century (50 runs), put up 120 runs for 7 wickets.
With confidence boosted by a defendable total, the Yorkers defended well, taking the first three wickets within six overs.
By the 20th over, Yorkton had nine wickets and five runs in hand, putting the Yorkers in the position to win. With the very bottom of the Jaguars batting order at the crease and Anwar bowling, one more wicket would give them their first win.
Unluckily for the Yorkers the Jaguars batsman executed a shot behind him over the wicket keepers' head perfectly placed that ran for the boundary and four runs. On the second ball, Anwar delivered a wide ball giving the Jaguars the tie at 120. Anwar brought all the fielders in for the next delivery to guard against the single, but the Jaguars were up to the task, putting the bat on Anwar's ball and running for the win by 1 wicket with the Yorkers oh so close for their first ever win with just four balls left.
The Yorkers play the Jaguars again May 25, this time in a 40-over match in a rematch that the Yorkers will hope will bring their first ever club win after a near miss on their opening weekend.
