NORTHAMPTON (England), July 20: Pakistan endured a torrid first day of their tour match as Northamptonshire’s Stephen Peters took advantage of a feeble attack to hit 142.

But there was good news for the tourists with the return of Younis Khan.

The vice-captain, leading the side in this three-day fixture, showed no signs of the knee injury which sidelined him from the Lord’s Test, with an unbeaten 50 as Pakistan reached 97 for three after the county declared their first innings at 269 for three.

But generally the Pakistanis struggled with both bat and ball. Peters, the 27-year-old opener, laid into the touring team’s second-string bowling attack by striking 26 boundaries during his 196-ball innings in a stay of 260 minutes.

Usman Afzaal, the former England Test left-hander, was the other beneficiary while adding 170 for the third wicket with Peters in only 164 minutes.

Afzaal struck 12 fours on his way to a 134-ball 71 as Shahid Nazir, Rao Iftikhar and Arshad Khan, called up from the league, all went wicketless.

Samiullah Niazi, the left-armer who replaced the injured Rana Naved-ul-Hasan in the injury-hit squad, was easily the best of the lot. He claimed two for 35, but for reason, bowled just a shade over eight overs.

Salman Butt and Imran Farhat, the openers, once again failed, as they had done at Lord’s in the first Test.

Salman failing to survive the first over for the second innings in succession as he nicked Charl Pietersen to wicket-keeper Riki Wessels after striking a boundary.

Imran lasted a bit longer but perished when he drove Ben Phillips and was well caught by Peters at backward square-leg.

Pakistan ran into further trouble at 50 for three when Taufiq Umar, flown in after Shoaib Malik went home, snicked David Wigley to give Wessels his second catch. Taufiq made 29 with six boundaries.

But Younis and a subdued Faisal Iqbal survived the final 50 minutes of the day without trouble. Younis helped himself to 10 fours in his 66-ball knock.

Scoreboard

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1st Innings):

S.D. Peters c Faisal b Samiullah 142

B.M. Shafayat c Younis b Samiullah 30

A.R. White c Kamran b Janisar 15

U. Afzaal not out 71

EXTRAS (LB-4, W-1, NB-6) 11

TOTAL (for three decl, 62.3 overs) 269

FALL OF WKTS: 1-71, 2-99, 3-269.

DID NOT BAT: S.C. Ganguly, D.J.G. Sales, M.H. Wessels, B.J. Phillips, C. Pietersen, D.H. Wigley, J.F. Brown.

BOWLING: Shahid Nazir 10-0-47-0 (3nb); Rao Iftikhar 11-0-56-0; Samiullah Niazi 8.3-1-35-2 (2nb, 1w); Janisar Khan 5-0-28-1; Arshad Khan 19-6-65-0 (1nb); Imran Farhat 9-1-34-0.

PAKISTAN (1st Innings):

Salman Butt c Wessels b Pietersen 4

Imran Farhat c Peters b Phillips 4

Taufiq Umar c Wessels b Wigley 29

Younis Khan not out 50

Faisal Iqbal not out 7

EXTRAS (LB-3) 3

TOTAL (for three wkts, 25 overs) 97

FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-24, 3-50.

TO BAT: Kamran Akmal, Janisar Khan, Rao Iftikhar, Arshad Khan, Shahid Nazir, Samiullah Niazi.

BOWLING (to-date): Pietersen 5.4-0-39-1; Phillips 6-0-22-1; Wigley 9-4-27-1; Shafayat 0.2-0-6-0; Brown 4-4-0-0.—Agencies