Cook stars for England

Dubai, Jan 11 (bdnews24.com) - England opener Alastair Cook withstood the tight Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) XI's bowling attack to crack an elegant 133 runs and help England post 269 for nine before declaring their first innings on the first day of their second warm-up match on Wednesday.

Though it was a better batting performance from England than in their first warm-up match against an ICC Combined Associate & Affiliate XI, they still saw leading batsmen Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell both dismissed for ducks, reports gulfnews.com.

The PCB XI's 25-year-old leg-spinner Yasir Shah bagged five wickets for 75 runs, while 23-year-old right arm medium pacer Mohammad Talha, who has only played one Test match for Pakistan nearly two years ago, picked up four for 43.

Cook's knock came off 260 balls with ten hits to the boundary. At close PCB XI were 23 for no loss in reply.

The PCB XI won the toss but elected to field and Talha struck with the fourth ball of the seventh over of the day. He forced England captain Andrew Strauss to edge to PCB XI skipper and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmad for three. Three balls later Talha trapped Trott leg before with a ball that moved in.

Cook and Kevin Pietersen settled down to pick the right balls to hit. They played the 19-year-old left arm spinner Raza Hasan and Shah with caution. They put on 83 in 24.1 overs for the third wicket before Pietersen lost his concentration and patience after scoring 38. Going back to a delivery from Shah, Pietersen was clean bowled.

Shah struck again with the first ball of his next over, trapping Bell, who went for a sweep, leg before. Eoin Morgan joined Cook and put on 20 runs for the fifth wicket before Shah picked up his third wicket. Going for a slog sweep, Morgan was brilliantly caught by Raza Hasan at deep square leg for 11.

Matt Prior and Cook found the gaps and steered England past the 200-run mark. Cook reached his century in 206 balls. Prior, who hit a patient 46 to put on 90 runs for the sixth wicket with Cook, eventually edged Talha to wicketkeeper Ahmad.

Graeme Swann hit a quick 24 which included a six before edging Shah behind. Shah claimed his fifth wicket when Talha took a brilliant one-handed catch to dismiss Graham Onions, who tried to hit over mid-on. England declared their innings when Cook edged Talha to Ahmad.

England made four changes from the team that won the first warm-up game..

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Source: bdnews24.com

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