Pakistan Tour of England, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Hameed-c2811, Umar Amin Shine
Pakistan had a good 2nd day against Leicestershire in the 2 day warm-up game before the first test match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 that begins on the 12th of July.
The Pakistani bowlers did not have a great time against Leicestershire on Day One of the two day match. The likes of Mohammad Asif, Wahab Riaz and Tanvir Ahmed failed to impress, as they looked unaccustomed to the British conditions. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Leicestershire-c807 made the Pakistan attack toil hard, and they could only get 6 wickets on the first day.
Australia, on the other hand, had an excellent day out with the bat against Derbyshire in their warm-up game.
Pakistan started Day Two with the two left-handed openers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 Farhat and Salman Butt. Imran Farhat was not part of the Twenty20 team that won a 2 match series against the Aussies, and did look short on match practice.
Farhat found it hard to find his feet on a relatively easy pitch; the bowlers kept feeding him on the off stump and stayed away from his leg stump that is his favourite area. Imran hung around for a while and finally got a booming cover drive that got him his only boundary, but finally the off stump line accounted for him, and he was caught by Will Jones off the bowling of Daniel Masters in the 12th over for just 6 runs from 34 balls.
Salman Butt, though, looked to have carried on the form from the T20 games.
The typical cover drives and flicks off his wrist were all there. Salman made sure he used this opportunity to fine-tune his game in time for the Test match. Salman put his front foot forward on every given opportunity, and continued to favour the cover region. On the other end, there was Azhar Ali, the man who has not yet made his Test debut. The young right-hander showed good promise and maturity. There were obvious nerves as he knew he was being judged, and took ample time to get his runs. Azhar did not seem to be in any sort of a hurry. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 and Azhar added 41 runs together before Butt was called back; he scored 57 runs from 80 balls with 11 beautiful boundaries.
Next man in was Yasir Hameed. The stylish right-hander is making a comeback in the side after a long layoff; Yasir was his usual self stretching far on the off stump for his drives. He showed enough to convince the tour selecting party that he is in good form.
While Azhar Ali continued to hog the crease, Yasir Hameed went on to score 58 runs from 80 balls with 7 fours and a 6. He also retired to let in Shoaib Malik.
Azhar Ali compiled 41 runs from 127 balls with 4 fours and a six; he was called back with the score at 187 (on the 55th over). The next man in was another man looking to make his name: Umar Amin, the left-hander, did play a couple of matches for Pakistan in the Asia Cup, but did not manage a sizeable score.
The left hander is blessed with excellent timing, and he showed that today, stroking his way to a half century. He scored 51 runs from 72 balls, with 8 fours. Shoaib Malik was out in the 61st over (lbw by Wayne White) for just 10 runs off 27 balls.
Later, Zulqarnain Haider, the reserve wicketkeeper, put on 15 runs off 59 balls before he was bowled by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jigar-Naik-c1694, and Tanvir Ahmed was unbeaten at 13 runs, alongside Wahab Riaz at 10.
Pakistan ended the day at 280 for the loss of 7 wickets. All in all, it was a good day for the Pakistani batsmen, who did look well equipped to deal with the moving ball. Even though after the shine was gone the batting was made quite easy, getting runs in a practice game does help.
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