CricketViewer.com

A second-string Pakistanis squad placed themselves in a strong position in their three-day tour match against Northamptonshire, here at the County Ground on Friday, when they finished the second day needing a further 136 runs to win with all second innings wickets intact.

The makeshift bowling attack, containing no frontline big guns, bowled the home team out for a modest 140 in their second outing after, at one stage, having captured the first five wickets with only 43 runs on the board.

Earlier, the Pakistanis’ stand-in skipper Younis Khan declared his team’s first innings closed at 250 for nine, which meant that they were 19 runs in deficit. But the new-ball bowlers Rao Iftikhar and Shahid Nazir immediately made inroads into the Northants batting line-up.

First innings centurion Stephen Peters perished second ball for a duck and Shahid grabbed three wickets for 33 runs. Later, off-spinner Arshad Khan and Imran Farhat, with his effective leg-spin, captured two wickets each to end the hosts’ innings.

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly lasted 42 minutes and 18 balls to make five runs before he returned retired hurt. The Pakistanis batted responsibly, with Younis already having reached fifty. The lower order flourished nicely.

Eventually, the visiting team required only 160 runs to win the match. After their first innings failure, openers Salman Butt and Imran batted out the seven overs till the close cautiously.

The four-dayer against Northamtonshire is Pakistan’s only side match before Inzamam-ul-Haq and his boys take on England in the second Test of the four-match series at Old Trafford, Manchester.

Scoreboard

Northamptonshire won toss

Northamptonshire 1st inns 269-3 dec (S D Peters 142, U Afzaal 71*)

Pakistanis 1st inns (overnight 97-3)

Salman Butt c Wessels b Pietersen 4

Imran Farhat c Peters b Phillips 4

Taufeeq Umar c Wessels b Wigley 29

*Younis Khan c & b Wigley 58

Faisal Iqbal lbw b Wigley 17

†Kamran Akmal c Sales b Ganguly 38

Jannisar Khan c Wessels b Wigley 31

Rao Iftikhar not out 33

Shahid Nazir c sub b Wigley 0

Arshad Khan run out 23

Extras (b4, lb9) 13

Total (9 wkts dec, 64.5 overs) 250

Did not bat: Samiullah Niazi

Fall: 1-4, 2-24, 3-50, 4-111, 5-142, 6-175, 7-202, 8-204, 9-250

Bowling: Pietersen 5.4-0-39-1; Phillips 14-2-55-1; Wigley 22.5-9-77-5; Shafayat 0.2-0-6-0; Brown 16-6-41-0; Ganguly 6-1-19-1

Northamptonshire 2nd inns

S D Peters lbw b Iftikhar 0

B M Shafayat c Imran b Shahid 2

†M H Wessels lbw b Shahid 9

S C Ganguly retired hurt 5

R A White lbw b Iftikhar 11

U Afzaal c Iftikhar b Shahid 8

*D J G Sales lbw b Imran 15

B J Phillips st Kamran b Arshad 39

C Pietersen not out 20

D H Wigley c Samiullah b Imran 14

J F Brown c Iftikhar b Arshad 4

Extras (b6, lb4, nb3) 13

Total (all out, 38.3 overs) 140

Fall: 1-0, 2-6, 3-17, 4-30, 5-43, 6-84, 7-99, 8-124, 9-140

Bowling: Rao Iftikhar 5-1-19-2; Shahid Nazir 7-2-33-3 (2nb); Jannisar Khan 4-1-8-0; Samiullah Niazi 7-1-24-0 (1nb); Arshad Khan 10.3-2-31-2; Imran Farhat 5-1-15-2

Pakistanis 2nd inns

Salman Butt not out 15

Imran Farhat not out 9

Extras 0

Total (no wkt, 7 overs) 24

Bowling: Wigley 4-1-15-0; Phillips 3-1-9-0

Umpires: N G B Cook and N A Mallender
Source:The News