Birmingham: Pakistan defeated arch-rivals India by 18 runs in the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Blind Games at King Edward’s School ground on Sunday.
Indian blind team after winning the toss, invited the green shirts to bat first.
Pakistan’s blind team scored 187 runs at the loss of eight wickets in their allocated 20 overs to set a mammoth target of 188 for India.
Pakistan skipper Nisar Ali scored 46 runs, while debutant Mohammad Salman scored a brisk fifty to guide Pakistan to reach a commendable total.
Ajay Kumar Reddy topped the Indian bowling card with four wickets, while Nakula Badanayak picked up three Pakistani wickets.
While chasing a mammoth 188, India started off well with Sunil Ramesh scoring 62 runs, while Durga Rao Tompaki scored 40 runs.
However, Pakistan bowlers pulled them back in the final overs to restrict them to 169 at the loss of seven wickets.
Pakistani bowler Matiullah bowled brilliantly and picked two wickets to restrict the arch-rivals.
Pakistan will face Bangladesh in their next World Blind Games fixture on Tuesday.
Staged after every four years, the IBSA World Games, in a first, is hosting 11 sports competitions after World Blind Cricket Ltd and IBSA agreed to add Cricket for the Visually impaired men and women in this year’s mega event.
Pakistan’s Complete squad
B1 category: Zafar Iqbal, Riyasat Khan, Mohammad Shahzaib, Fakhar Abbas, Mohammad Salman, Mohammad Asif
B2 category: Nasir Ali (c), Badar Munir (vc)
B3 category: Matiullah, Mohsin Khan, Kamran Akhtar, Akmal Hayat, Israr Hasan
Team management: Mohammad Jameel (head coach), Maher Mohammad Younus (coach), Tahir Mahmood Butt (trainer).
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