Lankans defend title in a thriller
Leap of joy - Sri Lanka had more than a reason to rejoice as they defended the West Asia title in style - Pix by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
In a fascinating game of baseball Sri Lanka scored a nerve-wracking one point victory over a gallant Pakistan side to win the West Asia Baseball Championship for the second successive time at the Japan-Sri Lanka Friendship baseball grounds, Diyagama yesterday.
Sri Lanka were dominating the game from the start as they scored three points in the first innings and were in the lead 3-1 up to the sixth inning. The way the Lankans got off to a start quickly from the first inning signalled an easy win for the host country. But the Pakistanis had other ideas by organising themselves to stand up to the Lankan onslaught.
Sri Lanka increased their total of three points with two more points in the eighth inning. The Pakistanis, in a late rally in the eighth and ninth innings, added two valuable points before losing their third batter made the Lankans feel uncomfortable. From the sixth innings onwards Pakistan added four points (one in the sixth, two in the eighth and one in the final inning making their total to four to the Lankans five scored in the first and eighth innings.
Sri Lanka would have increased their lead with more points but two superb catches were held in the Centre Out position by Pakistan fielders kept them at three in the end of the seventh inning.
A game between two well balanced teams matched in every department of the game-in fielding, catching, batting and pitching gave the crowd a good day’s baseball to witness. It was a delight to see the pitchers of both sides making the ball move off the air making the batters job difficult.
Defending champions Sri Lanka made their way to the finals defeating Iran 10-2 while Pakistan defeated their arch rivals India 13-2 to book their berth in the final. Sri Lanka defeated India 2-1, Nepal 13-0 and Pakistan beat Iran 11-1 and Bangladesh 17-0 in the preliminary round.
