Lions captured the Saskatchewan One Day Premier (ODP) League championship with a three wicket win in Sunday’s final against Stallions (September 22, 2013). Charnjit Singh lead with 46 as Stallions reached 180 all out, but half-centuries from Sanki James (60 runs) and Gurpreet Gill (54) pushed Lions towards victory. Stallions captured three wickets with Lions in sight of the win, but Lions captured the ODP Championship with four overs to spare.

The three wickets taken by Maulik Darshan during the early part of Stallions innings probably proved more significant than these three late wickets with the Lions near the winning post. Nerves may have jangled as Raffique (26) and Gill (60) were dismissed off consecutive balls with Lions on 174, after adding 72 for the fifth wicket. Kuldeep Singh was then out with scores tied.
Earlier in the day, Darshan’s third wicket saw Charnjit Singh caught for 46 to leave Stallions on 77 for four wickets. Darshan accounted for three of the top four Stallions batsman. Kuldeep Singh had accounted for opening bat Pankaj Dutta; caught for two. Kamaljeet Ghuman (21) and Aman Bhardwaj (17) added 29 for the Stallions ninth wicket.
In Saturday’s semi-finals, Lions beat Saskatoon Warriors by 72 runs and Stallions beat Saskatoon Stars by seven wickets. The Stallions and Lions clubs are both based in Regina, so Regina captured cricket’s inter-city bragging rights for the Province of Saskatchewan on Saturday.
Saskatchewan One Day Premier League Final (September 22, 2013)
Stallions 180 (39.5 ovs; Charnjit Singh 46, Surjeet Singh 27, Maulik Darshan 3 for 14) lost to Lions 181 for seven wkts (36 ov; Sanki James 60, Gurpreet Gill 54, Rashid Raffique 26) by three wickets
Saskatchewan One Day Premier League Semi-finals (September 21, 2013):
Lions 182 for six wkts (40 ov; Maulik Darshan 40, Asif Prasala 32, Sanki James 29, Gurpreet Gill 29) beat Saskatoon Warriors 110 (27 ov; Navdeep Singh 33*, Gokul Makwana 4 for 47, Kuldeep Singh 3 for 13) by 72 runs
Saskatoon Stars 194 (32.3 ov; Harpreet Mangat 53, Irfan Manzoor 41, Muzaffar Mahboob 36, Farrukh Cheema 29, Charnjit Singh 3 for 32, Paramvir Singh 3 for 37) lost to Stallions 195 for seven wkts (33.4 ovs; Surya Singh 67*, Surjeet Singh 30)
　
Semi-final match reports:
Charging Stallions halt Stars starting blitz
The Saskatoon Stars blazed out of the gate but stumbled after the fall of the second opening batsman with 122 runs on the board and 20.3 of the allowed 40 overs remaining. The Stallions followed with a slightly more consistent charge, scoring quickly losing wickets at a fair rate along the way, but won with more overs to spare (seven and a bit) than wickets to spare (three).
The Stars opening bats pumped 64 runs within seven overs. The first wicket fell Muzaffar Mahboob was caught for 36 to end of that seventh over (64 for one). Mahboob’s runs came from 23 balls with six fours and a six. The run rate cooled for five overs and the two new upper order batsmen fell for just 4 and a duck.
Irfan Manzoor then joined opener Harpreet Mangat. The scoring rate recovered to six an over as this pair notched 50 runs from eight overs. Mangat was caught soon after reaching his fifty. His knock ended with 53 runs from 52 balls and the Stars were well placed at 122 for four from 19.3 overs. Manzoor became the sixth dismissal of the innngs, caught for 41 made off 45 balls, leaving the progressive total on 149 for six off 25.2 overs. It soon became 149 for seven before a breezy innings of 29 by Farrakh Cheema provided most of the Stars late order runs. The Saskatoon Stars innings fizzled out after reaching 194 midway through the thirty-third over.
Stallions captain Sandy Kumar took two wickets for 29 from six overs. Parmavir took three for 37 from seven overs and Charnjit Singh took three for 32 from 6.3 overs. All three are listed as pace bowlers from medium pace upwards.
Sumesh Nanda was coon caught by Mangat for 5, but there were double-figure contributions from the bats of the numbers two through seven. The second wicket pair of Pankaj Dutta and Charnjit Singh carried the total to 48 before Dutta was caught off the first ball of the eighth over for 23. Param Singh hit a quick 13 runs, then Charnjit Singh fell, caught for 22 to place the Stallions on 81 for four wickets midway through the twelfth over.
Surya Singh and Surjeet Singh then added 76 runs for the fifth wicket at which stage Surjeet Singh was bowled for 30. The Stallions seemed to be in command with 157 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets, needing 38 more runs to win and almost fourteen overs in which to score those runs. Captain Sandy Kumar fell stumped for 10 and the fall of the seventh wicket saw a return to a batsman being caught. But Surya Singh kept going to reach 67 not out from 63 balls to lead the Stallions to victory.
　
Lions rampant against the Warriors
Maulik Darshan top scored with 40 and four other batsman notched between 17 and 32 runs to help Regina’s Lions reach 182 for six wickets from forty overs on Saturday against Saskatoon Warriors. This total proved the basis for a sizeable win by Lions , whose opening bowlers soon captured three early Warriors wickets and just 11 runs on the board.
Half the Warriors were out with 50 on the board after 13.1 overs. Navdeep Singh hit 33 not out and gained support from Jabir Hasan in a bid to transform the innings and the outcome of the game. Left-arm pacer Gokul Makwana’s bowling figures were dented, but after having Hasan caught for 21, he removed the last two Warriors batsmen for ducks. Warriors had rallied to 110 but the final curtain had fallen with 13 of a possible 40 overs unused. Kuldeep Singh, a right arm pace bowler, accounted for three of the front five Warriors batsman at a cost of just 13 runs. Makwana ended with four wickets for 47 runs.
Lions upper batting order included cameo knocks from opener Sanki James (29), Asif Prasala (32), Simran Dosanj (17) and Gurpreet Gill (29), in addition to number three bat Maulik Darshan’s contribution of 40 runs.
　
** Report complied by Eddie Norfolk, with thanks to those who recorded and loaded the electronic scorecards, and had setup the competition schedules for the Saskatchewan Cricket Association on CricHQ.