Pakistan made an unceremonious start to their high profile tour of India. A middle-order collapse undid a fluent start against the Board President's XI on the opening day of the three-day warm-up match at the HPCA stadium in Dharamsala on Thursday.
The visitors were 165 for five at close 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 part besides 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 opening pair helped the team quickly get off the blocks after bad light and drizzle 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-ul Haq elected to bat.
The hosts, however, made regular inroads to find themselves in a comfortable position at the end of the day.
Earlier, the start of play was delayed by about 50 minutes due to bad light.
The heavy cloud cover held up play much to the disappointment of 5000-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 an hour after scheduled lunch that the 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 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 R P Singh. He struck two more from the other end to seize the initiative.
The scoring rate reached alarming levels when host captain Mohammad Kaif turned to Ramesh Powar, the Mumbai off-spinner who had been among the wickets this season.
And the trick did work. Off the last ball of Powar's first over, Umar played it to square leg and seemed to settle for a single. Butt called for an ambitious second and was promptly sent back, but it was too late to beat Venugopala Rao's throw.
Six balls later, vice-captain Younis Khan edged an innocuous delivery from Gagandeep Singh to Dheeraj Jadhav at second slip.
Yousuf Youhana (18) announced his arrival with two meaty blows off Powar on the on side. But what promised to be an entertaining innings was cut short when Shib Shankar Paul found his inside edge.
Parthiv Patel, who had fumbled a couple of takes earlier, made no mistake and took a tumbling catch forward.
R P Singh resumed his second spell from the opposite end and tasted success immediately when he had Umar caught bat pad by Kaif at forward short leg.
Thanks to those two dismissals immediately after the tea break, Pakistan slipped to 83 for four and found themselves on the backfoot.
Butthe second string Indian attack posed little problems for Inzamam. He pulled R P Singh effortlessly to midwicket fence, and then cut and drove him on the off side, forcing Kaif to take him out of the attack.
Asim Kamal, whom the Indians will remember for his nerves of steel during the series last year, was equally adept at hooking Paul over backward square-leg. Later, he struck the Bengal pacer for two straight driven fours in the same over.
By now the cloud cover had lifted, giving a full view of the snowy peaks and the clear blue sky was visible for the first time in days.
The batsmen seemed to as much relish the sunshine as they stepped up the tempo.
The left-handed Kamal lofted Venugopala Rao to long on to bring up the 150. And Inzamam's every shot was reason for the crowd to cheer his 35th birthday.
Sadly, the Pakistan captain could make only as many runs.
And ending the 72-run partnership was the same lollypop off spin of the Andhra player when Inzamam played a reckless sweep and missed to be leg before wicket.
Scorecard
Pakistan (1st innings):
S Butt run out 21
T Umar c Kaif b R P Singh 37
Younis Khan c Jadhav b Gagandeep Singh 0
Y Youhana c Patel b Paul 18
Inzamam-ul-Haq lbw Rao 35
A Kamal batting 43
A Razzaq batting 2
Extras: ((b-5, lb-2, nb-2): 9
Total: (for 5 wickets in 45 overs) 165
Fall of wickets: 1-54, 2-55, 3-83, 4-83, 5-155.
Bowling: R P Singh 13-3-50-1, Gagandeep 15-3-40-1, Ramesh Powar 4-0-22-0, SS Paul 8-2-23-1, Venugopala Rao 5-0-23-1.
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