KARACHI: Zone II thrashed Zone III by an innings and 15 runs, in their first round, three-day 2008-09 National Inter-District Senior Karachi Region Cricket Championship match, that ended here at the TMC Cricket Ground on Thursday.

After winning the toss, Zone II put their opponents Zone III in to bat and managed to dismiss them for rather small scores of 236 and 114. In their turn to bat, Zone II had compiled a score of 365 for nine wickets and declared their innings closed in 82.3 overs, three deliveries short of their allotted quota.

Zone II’s knock was embellised by a score of 140 off 241 balls with 19 fours and a six by their left-handed opening batsman Ali Asad, the Pakistan Under-19s star cricketer.

Right-arm medium-fast Naved Khan, the Zone II captain, who hadn’t bowled in the first innings, came on in the second and captured four wickets for 31 runs in 11 overs to hasten Zone III’s demise.

Scores: Zone III 236 in 77.1 overs (Ahmed Zeeshan 97, Babar Rehman 54; Tabish Khan 3-64, Ashfaq Afridi 3-68) and 114 in 32.5 overs (Fahad Jabbar 38; Naved Khan 4-31). Zone II 365-9 dec in 82.3 overs (Naved Khan 52, Ali Asad 140, Shahid Aslam 51, Extras 34; Ausaf Rabbani 4-123).

Zone II will now play against Zone VII in their second round match, here at the same venue from, Saturday (July 5) to Monday. On the same three days, Zone III will faced defending champions Zone VI at the KCCA Stadium.