Century for Flower as Essex overwhelm Pakistan

Andy Flower scored a magnificent unbeaten 115, his first century of the season, as Essex overwhelmed Pakistan by 50 runs at Chelmsford. Flower carried his bat and hit 11 fours in a 128-ball innings, and was well supported by James Foster, who may yet feature in the NatWest Challenge against Pakistan if Chris Read fails to recover from a broken thumb. Foster scored 56 in a 90-run partnership for the second wicket, while Ravinder Bopara made 46, the highest score of his fledging career.

Essex's hefty total of 284 for 6 was always going to be a tough challenge for an inexperienced Pakistan team, who were given a rough ride in the opening match of their tour against Scotland at Glasgow. And when Graham Napier removed Imran Nazir and their stand-in captain, Yousuf Youhana, with consecutive deliveries, the target looked extremely distant.

Nick Denning then joined in with the wickets of Bilal Azad and Younis Khan, before Yasir Hameed and Shoaib Malik added 58 for the fifth wicket in even time. But, before they could put Essex back under any sort of pressure, Shoaib and Mohammad Hafeez were run out in quick succession.

The end was nigh when Joe Grant extracted Yasir for an excellent 82, although Essex were made to wait by a spirited counterattack from Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed, who added 42 for the ninth wicket. But Bopara completed a memorable day by picking up both men in swift succession.