KARACHI, July 19: South Zone beat North Zone due to delayed over rate and Central Zone Blues overpowered Central Zone Greens by four wickets on day two of Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) inaugural women’s Twenty20 quadrangular cricket championship at the Quaid-i-Azam Cricket Park in Steel Township on Saturday.

Winning the toss again today and putting North Zone in to bat, it is evident now that South Zone’s skipper Urooj Mumtaz Khan is more comfortable chasing runs.

Sana Javed and Marium Hasan Shah opened as usual for the yellow shirts from up north with Sana scoring 44 and yesterday’s top scorer and bat carrier Marium managing only 15 this time.

Out of sheer coincidence, North made as many runs as they did yesterday — 93. The problem with North is that they rely too much on their openers, who keep the score board ticking steadily, but once they are gone, the run-rate drops.

This time Marium went first after which Sana took the responsibility of holding one end. In order to keep the runs coming, North’s captain and hitter Qanita Jalil came in at one down but then she can be a wildcard just like Shahid Afridi. Qanita after making seven off seven balls, which included one four, was out caught by South’s Nain Abidi off Javeria’s ball, her second wicket.

Meanwhile, Sana hit a massive six. Her 44 runs included five fours too. After Sana was stumped by South’s Batool Fatima off Urooj, the rest of the wickets kept falling one after the other. Salma Faiz (11) was the only other contributor of double figures for North who lost seven wickets in giving South a 94-run target.

In reply, South created a major dilemma for match referee Amiruddin Ansari, debutant umpires Afia Amin and Shakila Rafiq. They needed five runs to win off one delivery. Humaira Mansoor was facing and everyone could only think of Sharjah and Javed Miandad. But this was Steel Town after all … if you can’t win by hitting a six, you can also tie the match by hitting a four. And that is what happened. South also made 93 runs with seven of their wickets down just like North.

The teams had tied both ways which meant that the match had to be decided in another way. Not paying heed to the fact that North Zone had bowled their overs at a slower rate, that according to the Twenty20 rules, six runs per over are awarded to the opposing side in the case, match referee at first declared North as the winners because they had made more runs than South after 10 overs. But then the decision was reversed in South’s favour, who won by 12 runs as North were behind by two overs giving them six runs for each.

North’s Sana Javed was the Woman of the Match.

In the second match, Central Zone Blues also decided to put their opponents in to bat after winning the toss.

Greens’ tally of 101 runs saw three of their batswomen — Sukhan Faiz (10), Nazia Nazir (34, not out) and skipper Asmavia Iqbal (24) — reaching double figures. Blues’ right-arm medium pacer Marina Iqbal bowled one maiden, giving away six runs in her two-over spell and their other pacer Sabeen Abdul Samad gave away just 17 in four overs while taking a wicket. The highest wicket-taker for Greens, however, was Almas Akram who took three wickets, giving away just 13 runs in four overs.

Blues reached the target of 102 in 19 overs, their highest scorer being Nida Dar (25).

Blues’ Sabeen Abdul Samad (22 runs, 1 wicket) was declared Woman of the Match.

Summarised scores:

NORTH ZONE 93-7 in 20 overs (Sana Javed 44, Mariam Hasan 15; Urooj Mumtaz 3-23, Javeria Khan 2-19); SOUTH ZONE 93-7 in 20 overs (Naheeda Khan 23, Sana Mir 20, Humaira Masroor 14 not out, Nain Abidi 12; Shakila Naz 2-6).

CENTRAL ZONE GREENS 101-5 in 20 overs (Nazia Nazir 34 not out, Asmavia Iqbal 24, Sukhan Faiz 10; Almas Akram 3-13); CENTRAL ZONE BLUES 102-6 in 19 overs (Nida Dar 25, Sabeen Abdul Samad 22, Marina Iqbal 19, Almas Akram 11 not out; Sadia Yousuf 3-24).