Munaf in elements, claims a five-for

Nothing went right for England on the first day of their second warm-up match here. To begin with, their skipper Micheal Vaughan missed the match 8212; reccurence of the knee injury he sustained during Pakistan tour 8212; and to top it all they were bundled out for 238, thanks to a five-wicket haul from Munaf Patel. In reply, Board Presidents XI were 93/1 8212; not a comfartable feeling for the visitors at the end of Day One.

After winning the toss, England chose to make first use of the wicket. The opening pair began well with Marcus Trescothick at his brilliant best until he ran himself out for 18. That, in fact, started the stutter with the chief perpetrator being Munaf. He got rid of Andrew Strauss when he was looking dangerous. He played on, while forcing a shot on the off-side. A feature that stood out in the entire England innings was, all their batsmen got starts but failed to capitalise on them. The best of the lot, however, was Kevin Peiterson, who blew apart the pacers, especially VRV. But luck deserted England again and he had to retire hurt with a niggling back problem.

Munaf grabbed the price wicket of Flintoff as he tried to clear one over the nid-off to be caught by VRV. Geraint Jones, Ian Blackwell and Liam Plunkett all looked impressive but could not carry on. Bowlers just kept pegging a line and got the breakthroughs needed. With the England tail in Munaf came into his element, bowling quick and rattling their stumps. Wasim Jaffer and Gautam Gambhir made batting look easy, playing the likes of Harmison, Hoggard and Flintoff comfortably. Jaffer looked in a great touch until he was out in the last over of the day to Ian Blackwell. He made 48 runs. Gambhir was not out on 33.

Brief Scores

England

: 238 Peiterson 47, Jones 46, Munaf 5/59 vs BP XI: 93/1 Jaffer 48, Gambhir batting 33.