LAHORE: Defending champions Sri Lanka retained their West Asia Cup Baseball title after sealing a thrilling 5-4 win over Pakistan in the final played in Colombo on Saturday.

According to the Pakistan Federation Baseball, it could have been anybody’s title as both countries fought until the very end. However, Sri Lanka scored the decisive in the ninth innings to take the trophy.

For Pakistan, Fazal-ur-Rehman, Sameer Zawar, Arsalan and Faqeer Hussain scored one run each.

However Pakistan along with Sri Lanka qualified for the main round of the Asia Cup, which will be played in Taiwan this October. The Asia Cup is also the qualifying round for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

India finished third in the six-team competition. They were followed by Iran, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2019