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LAHORE: Pakistan gave Afghanistan a 21-1 thumping in the opening match of the Saarc Baseball Cup on Tuesday.
Pakistan maintained complete domination of the match as the tournament kicked off at Lahore’s Punjab Stadium.
The home team attacked the Afghan pitchers from the beginning, making 14 scores in the first innings.
Batters Arshad Khan and Farooq Khan showed authority over the opposition and made two scores each with one home run. Sumair, Imtiaz, Zubair Nawaz, Arif Iftikhar, Asif also made useful contributions with a score each.
While the second innings saw a less aggressive approach by the batters, with six scores in the innings, Iftikhar hit a massive home run that ended up landing the ball outside the stadium. Other batters also contributed to the innings, with a run each from Arshad, Farooq Khan, Mohammed Arif and Asif.
Pakistan wrapped up the match in the third innings, when Zafar scored a home run to take the total to 21 before Afghanistan’s Nisar made a consolatory home run to put his name among the run-getters.
The result was no surprise as Pakistan are South Asia’s top-ranked team and occupy sixth position in Asian rankings.
The four-nation tournament will be played on a round-robin league format, wherein the team topping the table at the end of the fixtures will be declared champions.
Sri Lanka and Nepal are the other two teams participating in the tournament after India and Bangladesh turned down Pakistan Baseball Federation’s (PBF) invitation.
Earlier, Baseball Federation of Asia Secreaty General Hyun Lee, President SAARC Baseball Federation and Pakistan Baseball Federation Shaukat Javed met with the players and officials of both teams.
Wednesday’s match: Sri Lanka versus Nepal at 3.00pm.
