LAHORE – Afghanistan beat Nepal 19-11 in an interesting encounter of the first SAARC Baseball Cup at the Punjab Stadium here on Saturday. Both teams started their innings in aggressive way. Afghanistan made two scores. Mohammed Tahir and Mohammed Alam made a score each.
Nepal, however, took lead as they made four runs through Rajesh, Gowinda, Sandeep and Aneel. Afghanistan batters bounced back in the second innings and made five runs. Tahir, Alam, Samiullah, Nasir and Fazal Malik made one score each. Agfhan pitchers were also on the target and they did not allow Nepal batters to make score.
The Afghans continued their onslaught in the third innings as well and made 10 scores. Samiullah and Fazal Malik made two scores each. Nasir, Akhtar, Tahir, Alam, Mohammed Sami and Abdul Rehman made one score each. Nepal batters and pitchers performed better in the fourth innings. Their batters made six scores through Raniel, Baimen, Kishore and Sandeep who made one score each.
Aneel made two scores. Nepal pitcher hardly gave any liberty to Afghan batters and only allowed them one score which was made by Abdul Rehman. Both teams failed to get any score in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Nepal made one score through Aneel in the eighth innings while Afghan batters failed to score.
In the decisive ninth innings Sher Jan from Afghanistan made one score which decided the match in their favour. Iftikhar Ali Malik, vice-president SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industries was the chief guest. Khawar Shah, secretary general Pakistan Baseball Federation presented souvenir to the chief guest on the occasion.
