ISLAMABAD: Pakistan with the help of Waseem Ali and Riaz Khan’s home runs defeated Nepal with a huge margin of 16-1 runs in the opening match of West Asia Baseball Cup here on Saturday at the Pakistan Sports Complex.

Captain Sumair Zawar, Arslan Jamshaid, debutant Zakir Afridi and Arif Hussain scored two runs each.

While Mohsin Jamil, Faqir Hussain, Rizwan, Fiaz Khan Majeed and Amin Afridi, who was playing h his first international match, scored one run each the only run from Nepal was scored by Dinesh Sing.

Pakistan’s pitcher in Atif Hussain threw up brilliant performance hardly allowing opponent batter to play strokes with Arshad Khan and Zohaib providing the much-needed support.

A total of five teams including Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq are participating in the event the final of which will be played on March 1. Earlier, India’s participation was also confirmed but visas issues prevented India’s arrival in Pakistan.

Also, the opening match saw Nepal’s pitchers Binod Koirala and Milan Thapa failing to stop Pakistani batters from playing big shots, though Nepalese pitcher Jit pitched relatively well.

The event was inaugurated by Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Prizada in a colourful ceremony. Speaking on the occasion, he said that Pakistan was a sports-loving country with all potential to hold any international event.

Pakistan Baseball Federation (PBF) president Syed Khawar Shah, DG Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, Deputy Director General PSB Shahid Islam and diplomats from Nepal, Iraq and Sri Lanka among others attended the ceremony.

Talking to Dawn, captain of Nepal Iswor Thapa appreciated the host country for holding international events in a well-organized manner. He said that his team, which was relatively new one, had participated in several international events in Pakistan and had always found it that the country was safe.

On the other hand, Pakistan skipper Sumair Zawar said that he was optimist about defending the title. “Our coaches and players worked very hard for winning the championship which will definitely pay off in the end,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017