July 19, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 15, 1429

KARACHI, July 18: South Zone thrashed Central Zone Blues by seven wickets while Central Zone Greens beat North Zone by three wickets on the first day of the inaugural women’s Twenty20 quadrangular cricket championship, being held under the auspices of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) at the Quaid-i-Azam Park cricket ground in Steel Township on Friday.

The first encounter saw South Zone winning the toss and putting Central Zone Blues into bat. Blues made 101 for six in the allotted 20 overs with the 15-year-old opener Bisma Maroof who was LBW by Sajida Shah, being the top scorer, making a 24-ball 29 which included five fours.

Blues’ other notable scorers included Almas Akram who remained not out at 27 off 26 balls, Taskeen Qadeer the other opener who made 11 off 21 and was caught by Sajida off Kanwal Naz and Zeba Manzoor, who scored 10 off 16 and was declared leg before off Urooj Mumtaz.

Meanwhile, Marina Iqbal (LBW, Urooj) made six, Sabeen Abdul Samad (stumped Batool Fatima, bowled Urooj) scored four, Faryal Awan (not out) made three and Nida Dar (stumped Batool, bowled Sajida) made two with the main wicket-taker in the innings Urooj Mumtaz getting away with three for 17 followed by Sajida Shah (two for eight) and Kanwal Naz (one for 20).

South’s chasing the 101-run target was a simple and straightforward affair with Urooj Mumtaz playing a sensible captain’s innings while remaining 34 not out from 41 balls, which included three fours. Only three wickets fell in the second innings, those of Nain Abidi (LBW, Almas Akram) who made 11, Sajida Shah (caught Taskeen, bowled Nida Dar) who made 32 and Sana Mir who was out for a duck (LBW, Sabahat Rashid). South reached their target in 19.1 overs.

Blues’ 13-year-old all-rounder Nimra Imran, the youngest player in the tournament although given a chance to bowl, placed at number nine, her turn to bat just didn’t come.

The match also saw the losing side awarding the winners with 27 extras.

Urooj Mumtaz, the winning captain, was also named Woman of the Match.

The second match, in the afternoon, saw a close finish when winners Central Zone Greens while chasing a quite gettable total of 93 runs, needed three runs from three balls in the end.

The pressure was taken off by Shumaila Mushtaq finally when she hit a spectacular straight four, winning the match for Greens with a ball to spare.

Earlier, North Zone won the toss and elected to bat first. They were all out in 19.5 overs with opener Marium Hasan Shah (40) carrying the bat. Marium’s innings included four fours. The first innings’ other major contributors included Shakila Naz (12), Sana Javed (11) and Salma Faiz (nine).

Wickets fell rapidly to Asifa Batool (three for 24), Nazia Nazir (two for four), Asmavia Iqbal (one for 28), Sania Khan (one for 20), Sadia Yousuf (one for 12) and Sana Gulzar (one for 16). In reply, Greens reached 95 in 19.4 overs while losing seven wickets.

Nazia Sadiq made 17, Sukkhan Faiz 12, Shumaila Mushtaq 36 (not out), Asmavia Iqbal 18 while North’s skipper Qanita Jalil (two for 12) and Marium Hasan (two for six) were the major for wicket takers.

Shumaila Mushtaq was named Woman of the Match.

The day had its share of first times too. This is the first national-level championship with women umpires. Hence umpires Kausar Shah, Mahjabeen Shafqat, Humaira Farah and Riffat Mustafa made their debuts as domestic-level umpires.