25 February 2004	Wednesday	04 Muharram 1425

LAHORE, Feb 24: Lahore made an appropriate response on Tuesday to the mammoth Rawalpindi's first innings score of 494 to end the second day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy game at the LCCA Ground on 226 for three.

Lahore began their innings on a disastrous note when Imran Farhat, the left-handed Test opener, lasted just three deliveries in Azhar Mahmood's opening over, and was caught by Babar Naeem for a duck.

However, Taufiq Umar, the other Test left-handed opening batsman, then put on 47 for the second wicket with Saleem Elahi before the latter fell to Yasir Arafat for 28.

Batting confidently, Taufiq and Salman Butt denied Rawalpindi another wicket for a while as the two left-handers added 138 runs for the third wicket. Taufiq, who stroked 13 boundaries in his 135-ball innings that lasted 202 minutes, was dismissed by left-arm medium-pacer Najaf Shah for 86.

Salman, who played a solitary Test against Bangladesh at Multan last September, was still at the crease with 64 to his credit. With him was Kamran Akmal on 26. Salman's 103-ball knock included 11 hits to the fence.

Earlier, Rawalpindi's final three wickets yielded 104, taking the overnight score from 390 for seven to 494 all out with useful contributions down the order.

Scoreboard

RAWALPINDI (1st Innings, overnight 390-7):

Babar Naeem lbw b Imran 149

Afaq Rahim b Wasim 20

Ashar Zaidi lbw b Irfan 4

Bilal Asad lbw b Razzaq 32

Naveed Qureshi c Kamran b Razzaq 0

Shiraz Khalid lbw b Irfan 10

Azhar Mahmood lbw b Saqlain 75

Yasir Arafat c Taufiq b Irfan 64

Junaid Zia b Khalil 34

Mohammad Shahbaz lbw b Irfan 41

Najaf Shah not out 23

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-5, W-4, NB-31) 42

TOTAL (all out, 121.3 overs) 494

FALL OF WKTS: 1-30, 2-45, 3-109, 4-109, 5-149, 6-308, 7-334, 8-409, 9-432.

BOWLING: Wasim Khan 20-4-80-1 (6nb); Mohammad Khalil 32-5-105-1 (6nb, 2w);Irfan Fazil 21.3-1-119-4 (15nb);Abdul Razzaq 17-1-95-2 (5nb); Saqlain Mushtaq 19-5-56-1; Imran Farhat 11-2-29-1; Salman Butt 1-0-4-0.

LAHORE (1st Innings):

Imran Farhat c Babar b Azhar 0

Taufiq Umar c Ashar b Najaf 86

Saleem Elahi c Naveed b Yasir 28

Salman Butt not out 64

Kamran Akmal not out 26

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-4, W-3, NB-14) 22

TOTAL (for three wkts, 49 overs) 226

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-47, 3-185.

TO BAT: Adil Nisar, Abdul Razzaq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mohammad Khalil, Wasim Khan, Irfan Fazil.

BOWLING (to-date): Azhar Mahmood 14-1-67-1 (1nb); Najaf Shah 11-2-52-1 (1nb); Yasir Arafat 12-2-44-1 (4nb, 2w); Junaid Zia 4-1-32-0 (4nb, 1w); Bilal Asad 2-0-11-0; Shiraz Khalid 6-0-15-0 (5nb).