Beckenham (England): Pakis­tan launched their England tour on a winning note here on Saturday when they completed a 100-run defeat of Kent after putting up a commanding batting performance earlier in the day at the Kent County Cricket Ground in Beckenham (partly reported in Sunday’s edition).

Imad Wasim, the Swansea-born all-rounder, starred in Pakistan’s total of 358-7 with a career-best List ‘A’ of 117 not out from 88 deliveries, while fellow left-handers Fakhar Zaman (76) and Haris Sohail (75) also made substantial contributions but former captain Shoaib Malik scored just four.

Faced with a daunting chase of more than seven runs per over, Kent lost both openers, Sean Dickson and Zak Crawley to seamer Faheem Ashraf inside the first seven overs and when skipper Adam Rouse fell for 20, the makeshift county side had slumped to 44-3.

Alex Blake then joined Ollie Robinson in rousing partnership that yielded 132 in just 87 deliveries while cashing on half-trackers which Yasir Shah bowled with alarming regularity.

The leg-spinner captured three wickets but proved extremely expensive as his 10 overs went for 90 runs with 60 of them coming in boundaries (six sixes and as many fours) with Blake striking four of his half-a-dozen sixes off Yasir.

Blake, who also hit six fours, skied a return catch to Hasan Ali, for a blazing 89 from just 48 deliveries while Robinson was caught behind off Hasan for 49 with his 76-bvall knock featuring three boundaries.

Pakistan will be action on Mon­day when they face Northamp­­tonshire in the second one-day fixture of the tour.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN:

Imam-ul-Haq c Rouse b Snater 39
Fakhar Zaman c Snater b Imran 76
Babar Azam b Imran 9
Haris Sohail c Crawley b Harris 75
Sarfraz Ahmed c Klaassen b Imran 10
Shoaib Malik b Imran 4
Imad Wasim not out 117
Faheem Ashraf c Cox b Klaassen 17
Hasan Ali not out 0

EXTRAS (B-4, W-7) 11

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 50 overs) 358

FALL OF WKTS: 1-92, 2-123, 3-138, 4-152, 5-164, 7-303, 7-352.

DID NOT BAT: Yasir Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

BOWLING: Harris 10-0-87-1 (4w); Klaassen 10-0-86-1 (1w); Snater 10-0-68-1 (1w); Riley 7-0-49-0; Imran Qayyum 10-0-45-4; Blake 3-0-19-0.

KENT:

Z. Crawley c Sarfraz b Faheem 7
S.R. Dickson c Malik b Faheem 2
O.G. Robinson c Sarfraz b Hasan 49
A.P. Rouse c sub b Yasir 20
A.J. Blake c and b Hasan 89
J.M. Cox c Sarfraz b Imad 21
S. Snater c Imam b Yasir 12
J.A.R. Harris c Fakhar b Yasir 0
Imran Qayyum not out 26
A.E. N. Riley st Sarfraz b Fakhar 10
F.J. Klaassen c Babar b Fakhar 10

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-11) 12

TOTAL (all out, 44. 1 overs) 258

FALL OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-10, 3-44, 4-176, 5-184, 6-211, 7-211, 8-217, 9-231.

BOWLING: Faheem Ashraf 5-1-16-2; Shaheen Shah Afridi 7-3-20-0 (1w); Hasan Ali 7-0-35-2 (2w); Imad Wasim 8-0-39-1; Yasir Shah 10-0-90-3 (2w); Shoaib Malik 5-0-37-0 (1w); Fakhar Zaman 2.1-0-20-2 (1w).

RESULT: Pakistan won by 100 runs.

UMPIRES: M. Newell and N.L. Bainton.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2019