LAHORE, March 23: Pakistan made a flying start to the 10th West Asia Baseball Cup campaign crushing Iran 11-0 in the opening match of the event at the Punjab Stadium here on Friday.

Iran, who looked strong as they restricted Pakistan from scoring any run until Arshad Khan hit a home-run in the second innings, later failed to produce significant resistance mainly due to the fine show by the Pakistan pitchers.

Pakistan earned their second run through Mohammad Asif in the third innings. In all, Asif contributed three runs.

Pakistan were more offensive in the fourth and fifth innings as they added five more runs. While in the fourth innings, Asif and Iftikhar Ahmed contributed one run each, in fifth innings Arshad, Farooq Khan and Asif added one run apiece as Pakistan took a comfortable 7-0 lead by the end of the fifth innings.

While Iran failed to respond, an aggressive Pakistan registered one more run in the sixth innings through Arsalan to make it 8-0.

In the seventh innings, which proved the last of the match, Pakistan added three runs through Sumair Zawar, Arif Senior and Arsalan to win the match easily.

In their second match, Pakistan will take on Afghanistan on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan baseball squad also reached Lahore and visited the Punjab Stadium.

Earlier, President of the Pakistan Olympic Association Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan inaugurated the event. Secretary POA Khalid Mahmood, President Pakistan Federation Baseball Shaukat Javed and Secretary PFB Khawar Shah were also present on the occasion.