Pakistan too strong for Northants

Pakistan's tour of England hadn't got off to the ideal start - a tentative one-wicket win over Scotland and a comprehensive thrashing from Essex - but at the third attempt they hit top form. Not even a fine century from David Sales could disrupt their progress towards a 62-run win.

Pakistan batted first and piled up an impressive 298 for 7 in their 50 overs. Imran Nazir (66) and Mohammad Hafeez (38) gave them a purposeful start after Rashid Latif had won the toss and opted to bat first on a typically easy-paced Wantage Road pitch. They added 116 in 18 overs, and Pakistan looked set for a total in excess of 300 when Younis Khan (69) and Yasir Hameed (62) were in harness for the third wicket. But a late flurry of wickets revived Northants' prospects, as Pakistan slumped from 252 for 2 to 274 for 6.

Northants' reply was none too confident. Phil Jaques continued his impressive form with 29 from 26 balls, but when he top-edged a pull off Umar Gul to deep square-leg they had slumped to 47 for 3. But Sales and Jeff Cook (45) engineered a recovery, adding 106 in 19 overs. Pakistan's relatively inexperienced attack were running out of ideas, but Shoaib Malik came to the rescue by bowling Cook before Umar removed Graeme Swann and Toby Bailey with successive balls to kill off the Northants challenge.