Trescothick gives England perfect start
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Your support makes all the difference.Opener Marcus Trescothick scored a terrific century as England won their opening tour match in Pakistan.
Opener Marcus Trescothick scored a terrific century as England won their opening tour match in Pakistan.
Trescothick hammered a 93 ball 102 as Nasser Hussain's team scored a massive 323 for seven against a strong Governor's XI.
Paceman Darren Gough then took five wickets as England dismissed their opponents for 242 to win by 81 runs, despite 120 from Elahi.
Somerset left hander Trescothick was backed by Graeme Hick, who hit 82, Hussain 44 and Graham Thorpe 23.
Trescothick began by hitting boundaries off the first two overs from Test stars Mohammad Akram and Kabir Khan.
His 50 came off just 45 balls and took only 48 more to reach three figures before being caught at short fine leg attempting to flick Shoaib Malik's full-length delivery to add another boundary to the four sixes and 11 fours he had already collected.
His impressive display was in stark contrast to that of Stewart, who began hesitantly and never really got into any rhythm before falling for just 17 in the ninth over of the innings at the National Stadium.
Several times he played and missed outside off-stump attempting to hit himself back into the groove and was caught at mid-on off a no-ball from Akram when he had scored only one.
Hussain's form showed little sign of improvement despite his 95 against Bangladesh just over a fortnight ago and gave every indication of a player with only one score past 50 in his last 10 one-day international innings.
He scratched around for five overs before finally getting off the mark from his 13th delivery, pushing Shabbir Ahmed through the covers to the boundary and, as if suddenly released from his shackles, then drove the next ball through mid-off for four.
That gave him the confidence to develop a disciplined if not fluent innings, scoring 44 off 63 balls before loosely pulling Shahid Afridi straight to Asim Kamal at mid-wicket.
Having lost both Trescothick and Hussain in the space of three overs, England needed to rebuild their innings if they were to set a challenging total and were given a solid platform by Graeme Hick and Graham Thorpe.
Thorpe perished for 23 with eight overs remaining but Hick spearheaded the late onslaught with England adding 86 in the final 10 overs.
The Worcestershire batsman finished on a stylish 82 off 60 deliveries, including two sixes and nine fours.
SCORECARD
England won toss
ENGLAND
M E Trescothick c Iqbal b Shoaib 102 A J Stewart c Younis Khan b Shabbir 17 N Hussain c Kamal b Shahid 44 G A Hick c Kabir Khan b Shoaib 82 G P Thorpe c Elahi b Arafat 23 A Flintoff c Latif b Mohammad 13 C White not out 21 M A Ealham c Afridi b Shoaib 4 A P Grayson not out 0 Extras (lb2 w2 nb13) 17 Total (for7, 50 overs) 323
GOVERNOR'S XI
Asim Kamal c Trescothick b Hick 43 Shahid Afridi c Stewart b Caddick 0 Salim Elahi b Hick 120 Younis Khan b Gough 2 Iqbal lbw Gough 2 Latif lbw Gough 7 Arafat c White b Grayson 6 Shoaib Malik not out 27 Kabir Khan c Flintoff b Ealham 2 Mohammad Akram b Gough 9 Shabbir Ahmed b Gough 0 Extras (b1 lb6 w14 nb3) 24 Total (all out, 46.4 overs) 242
England won by 81 runs.
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