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Pak 165/5 at stumps on day one
Pak batsmen failed to convert good starts into big scores in their warm-up match against Board President's XI.
Pakistan had an unceremonious start to their high profile tour of India as a middle order collapse undid a fluent start against Board President's XI on the opening day of the three-day warm up match at HPCA Stadium on Thursday.
The visitors had fallen to 165 for five despite a half-century opening stand and another equally enterprising middle-order partnership between captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and Asim Kamal.
Inzamam's 35th birthday celebrations were spoilt to a large extent by some indiscretion on his own part besides some penetrative bowling and agile fielding by the Board XI players.
At stumps, Kamal was batting on 43 with Abdul Razzaq on two.
Taufeeq Umar (37) and Salman Butt (21) gave the tourists a solid start before two quick dismissals pegged them back.
The Pakistani opening pair helped the team quickly get off the blocks after bad light and drizzle had robbed nearly three hours of play.
Butt and Umar put on 54 runs for the opening stand before the former was run out for 21 after captain Inzamam elected to bat.
The hosts however made regular inroads to put themselves in a comfortable position at the end of the day.
Earlier, heavy cloud cover held up the start of play, much to the disappointment of 5,000 odd spectators who had come to watch the Pakistanis on their first visit to India in six years.
And when play finally got underway, heavy drizzle forced suspension with less than three overs bowled.
It was only after close to one hour after scheduled lunch time that sun came out for the first time in the day and some real action was possible.
Butt and Umar were in excellent touch as they drove the seamers Rudra Pratap Singh and Gagandeep Singh effortlessly. The two left handers had full support of the locals who cheered every boundary they hit.
Butt, whose confidence was high after a classy century against Australia, found his first boundary with an elegant cover drive off RP Singh. He struck two more from the other end to seize the initiative.
