Cricket Update: Leicestershire hold off Pakistan attack on day 1 of 2 day match ahead of the test match against Australia
Pakistan had a relatively disappointing day out against Leicestershire on day 1 of the 2 day tour match, as Pakistan attack looked to be not making most of the English conditions and could not take all 10 wickets of the county side. There was lack of creativity as far as the Pakistan attack was concerned, the use of early morning moisture and the overcast conditions was almost nonexistent.
While Leicestershire batting line up looked determined to give Pakistan bowlers a good run for their money, the county side made sure that the visitors were made to work hard in pursuit of wickets. In hind sight, it was a good thing for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, who would be facing a much stiffer opposition in the first test against Australia that starts on 12th of July.
The Seamers from Pakistan Wahab Riaz , Muhammad Asif and Tanvir Ahmed all were not part of the T-20 side that beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 2-0, and lack of match practice was evident as the trio could not maintain a consistent line and length, while the spinners although restrictive were not able to penetrate a resolute Leicestershire batting line up.
Leicestershire won the toss and elected to bat first, Muhammad Asif shared the new ball with Wahab Riaz the left arm medium pacer from Lahore.
Asif, who has not been at his best in recent games still looked out of it, his usual immaculate line and length was not to be seen, and the exaggerated movement normally associated with the right arm pacer was not there either. Asif pretty much bowled gun barrel straight and was not able to pick even a single wicket, he ended the day with figures of 54 runs from 17 overs with no wickets.
Boyce and Jones opened the innings for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Leicestershire-c807 and looked at ease against the new ball. Wahab Riaz though did use the left arm angle from over the wicket but still could not make the ball to come in to the right hander’s.
Pakistan got the first wicket when Jones was caught in the slips by Imran Farhat off the bowling of Tanvir Ahmed, who came on as the first change bowler. Tanvir did get one to shape away from the right hander and Jones while trying to fend it off nicked it to 2nd slip. Jones scored 23 runs from 45 balls with 4 boundaries.
2nd wicket came soon after but it was due to a brilliant direct through from Shoaib Malik from point, as Boyce tried to go for a quick single, Boyce scored 21 runs from 42 balls with 4 boundaries.
Du Toit at number 3 was determined to give Pakistan attack a tough time, not by scoring but by not laying any bat on anything that was fractionally outside the stumps.
Toit kept repeating the practice before he was finally caught by Imran Farhat off the bowling of off spinner Saeed Ajmal, du Toit scored just 14 runs from 64 balls and hung around for more than an hour.
Smith at the other end though continued to frustrate the bowlers, and kept blocking pretty much everything that came his way, but did take his chances from time to time.
Cobb was the next man to go after scoring 23 runs from 48 balls he was the 2nd run out of the innings when Saeed Ajmal hit the stumps directly from a distance.
Batting at number 7, White joined Smith and the two continued to dominate the Pakistan attack. Smith was dismissed after scoring a mammoth 87 that took him 198 balls and he lasted more than 4 hours at the crease. Smith was caught by Saeed Ajmal off the bowling of Wahab Riaz.
Leicestershire ended the day at 277 for 6, and gave Pakistan a real wake up call, but still considering that Umar Gul and Muhammad Aamer were not part of the team for the practice match, Pakistan team would still not be so disappointed from the first day’s play.
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