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Pakistanis have
an inauspicious outing against England A |
July 10, 2006
Pakistan’s preparations for the Lord’s Test were
hampered due to injuries to their key fast
bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sami during
the England A warm up match. Asif injured his
elbow and is expected to miss the 1st Test and
Sami was hit badly on his knee while fielding.
Kamran Akmal had also sustained an injury during
this match which was a bruised left index
finger, but he is likely to get fit for the 1st
Test starting on the 13th. England had their
injury problems compounded with their strike
bowler Matthew Hoggard who figured in this warm
up match was accidentally injured by Tim Bresnan
on his bowling arm during a game of rugby. Both
sides are now forced to go in with weakened line
ups for the First Test. The warm up game at
Canterbury did not do any good for the visitors
with the home side batting for most of the time
in this four-day game. It ended in a draw with
the Pakistani bowlers having to do lot of work.
England A after winning the toss elected to bat
first and they made a massive 595 for 9 before
declaring their innings having played 173 overs!
Their Skipper and Test Discard Robert Key led
from the front scoring 136. But the innings that
stood out was from another Test Discard Chris
Read, the wicket keeper batsman. Read impressed
the selectors with a splendid unbeaten 150.
England middle order batsman, Ian Bell had a
nice knock in the middle scoring 74. Pakistani
bowlers were frustrated by the no.11 bat, Stuart
Broad who went onto score a half century and he
had put on an unbroken 127 runs for the 10th
wicket along with Chris Read. Leg Spinner Danish
Kaneria was made to toil hard for his four
wickets and he had bowled almost fifty overs in
the innings.
Pakistan innings was rocked by Jamie Dalrymple’s
off breaks and they were bowled out in just over
73 overs putting on 242 on the board. Faisal
Iqbal, who had come in at no.3 top scored with
82. Salman Butt at the top scored 63 and no
other batsman could go onto make a big score.
Pakistan’s most experienced batsmen, Mohammad
Yousuf and Skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq were dismissed
for ducks. The two Off Spinners did the damage
for England A with Jamie Dalrymple picking up
four and Alex Loudon ending up with three
wickets. England A in their second innings
declared at 153 for 1 leaving Pakistan with a
target of 507. Alastair Cook, the new find in
this English Test Side remained unbeaten on 80
and Bell picked up another half century.
Interestingly Pakistan, who were not happy with
the length of time England A batted in their
first innings, used part timers Salman Butt and
Imran Farhat to send down 40.1 overs of the 44.1
bowled!
The match headed towards a meaningless draw with
Pakistan playing the remaining 50 overs without
losing a single wicket. The visitors used the
opportunity to give some valuable match practice
for Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq after
asking the opening batsmen Salman Butt and Imran
Farhat to retire after their good start. England
A used all its 10 fit players to bowl including
the wicket keeper Chris Read. The only player
who missed out was the unfit Matthew Hoggard.
England A 1st Inngs 595-9 declared
(Chris Read 150* Robert Key 136 Ian Bell 74
Stuart Broad 54* Alex Loudon 51, Danish Kaneria
4/158, Umar Gul 2/92 Mohammad Sami 2/97)
Pakistanis 1st Inngs 242 all out
(Faisal Iqbal 82, Salman Butt 63 Abdul Razzaq 37
Mohammad Sami 28*, Jamie Dalrymple 4/61 Alex
Loudon 3/28)
England A 2nd Inngs 153/1 declared (Alastair
Cook 80* Ian Bell 50*)
Pakistanis 2nd Inngs 154/0 (Salman
Butt 50 retd Imran Farhat 44 retd Mohammad
Yousuf 35* Inzamam-ul-Haq 20*)
Result : England A Vs Pakistanis,
4-day match played between July 6-9 at
St.Lawrence Ground in Canterbury ended in a
draw.
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