LONDON – A half-century from Imam-ul-Haq, nephew of Pakistan chief selectorand former captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, helped saved Pakistan’s blushes on thefirst day of their first warm-up game against Kent, but their eventual 168was still a sub-par total.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Pakistan made a decent start tothe first innings of their tour of Ireland, England, and Scotland,progressing to 111/3. Imam-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq had added 48 after thelosses of Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali, and Haris Sohail, but when Shafiq wasremoved by Ivan Thomas, his dismissal precipitated a slide of 7/57 to 168all out.

Kent’s Will Gidman did the majority of the damage by taking 5/47, includingthe wickets of Azhar, Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed, and Imam-ul-Haq for awell-made 61. Hasan Ali added a rapid 24 from No.10, striking a pair eachof fours and sixes in his 11-ball innings before he was caught by CalumHaggett off the bowling of Harry Podmore to bring Pakistan’s innings to aclose.

Hasan, who shot to prominence after being named Player of the Tournament inlast year’s Champions Trophy, struck early with the ball, pinning DanielBell-Drummond LBW with his fourth ball. But Sean Dickson and Joe Denlyadded a sedate 38 to show there were no demons in the pitch before badlight brought a premature end to the first of three scheduled days of play.

Following the conclusion of this fixture, Pakistan will take onNorthamptonshire in a three-day game, before becoming Ireland Men’sfirst-ever Test opponents. That match will begin on 11 May at Malahide inDublin.