Northants v Pakistanis, Northampton, 2nd day

Nazir stakes his claim for Pakistan

Cricinfo staff

July 21, 2006

Pakistanis 250 for 9 dec (Younis 58, Wigley 5-77) and 24 for 0 (Butt 15*, Farhat 9*) need 136 more runs to beat Northamptonshire 269 for 3 dec and 140 (Nazir 3-33)
Scorecard

Shahid Nazir staked his claim for a spot in Pakistan's attack for the second Test at Old Trafford with an impressive burst against Northamptonshire. His three wickets helped skittle the home side for 140 in their second innings, leaving Pakistan to chase 160 after they had declared their first innings 19 runs behind.

Nazir removed Bilal Shafayat, Rikki Wessels and Usman Afzaal as Northamptonshire slumped to 43 for 5 second time around. However, that wasn't the only damage he inflicted as a bouncer struck Sourav Ganguly in the face and forced him to retire hurt on 5.

Iftikhar Anjum chipped in with a couple, including the first-innings century-maker Stephen Peters second ball, while Arshad Khan and Imran Farhat played their part with the ball with two wickets each. Ben Phillips at least ensured the Pakistanis had some sort of target to chase with a defiant 39 before being stumped off Arshad.

Earlier in the day the Pakistan batsmen certainly didn't have it all their own way. Younis Khan only added eight to his overnight 50 before being caught and bowled by David Wigley, who then added Faisal Iqbal to his haul. Wigley's fine performance continued as the scalps of Jannisar Khan and Shahid Nazir handed him the first five-wicket haul of his career.

Ganguly snared Kamran Akmal, who had again appeared in fine form before edging to third slip, but some late hitting from Iftikhar and Arshad pushed the total close to Northamptonshire's.

Salman Butt and Faisal Iqbal, the under-pressure openers, managed to negotiate the final seven overs of the day and knock off 24 from the target. The rest of the run chase shouldn't provide too many problems on the final day.

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