LAHORE, Oct 4: Fine batting by Nazish and Mussarat and impressive pitching by captain Ambreen and Marriyum helped Punjab win the fourth National softball championship beating NWFP in a nail-biting final 9-8 at the Lahore College, University for Women on Tuesday.

The NWFP won the toss and elected to bat first but they failed to score any run in the first innings as Marriyum pitched well.

Punjab made a bad start in the first innings when Mussarat was out caught by Sidra. Nazish scored the first run for Punjab.

However, Punjab could not earn any more runs in the first innings as they were struck out by Maria.

NWFP and Punjab both failed to score any runs in the second innings.

NWFP, however, batted well in the third innings scoring three runs through Nazia, Sundus and Sidra to take 3-1 lead. Punjab managed to level the score 3-3 after Arbila and Rubina scored one run, each in the third innings.

NWFP could not collect any run in the fourth innings due to fine pitching by Ambreen after Asheer and Sundali were struck out.

In the fourth innings, Punjab scored four runs through Arbila (2) and Mussarat and Maria one run each to take 7-3 lead.

NWFP’s performance was at its peak in the fifth innings and they scored five runs to take 8-7 lead. Asheer (2), Sundus (2) and Rubina (1) were the scorers.

Punjab scored two runs in the fifth innings to win the match after Mussarat got to walk to load first base and Nazish hit powerfully to score a run before Arbila struck the winning stroke to complete the task.