Cricket: England complete victorious Pakistan warm-up

Pakistan A 117

England 118-5

England win by five wickets

England wrapped up their successful mini-tour of Pakistan by easing to a five-wicket win at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, yesterday.

Unlike Friday's keenly contested 35-run win over the same opponents, Adam Hollioake's men were never really extended, even though their hosts again included four players with international experience.

Dougie Brown, who has made a solid claim to open the bowling when England launch their Sharjah Cup campaign against India on Thursday, picked up three early wickets with his fast-medium pace.

Captain Adam Hollioake struck twice, off-spinner Robert Croft polished off the innings with three cheap victims and Mark Ealham, cleverly changing his pace, caught the eye with figures of 10-4-17-2 that secured him the man of the match award as Pakistan A were dismissed for 117 in 38.3 overs.

Given such a small target to chase, England should have won at a canter but were guilty of carelessness.

Ally Brown and Graeme Hick drove loosely, Alec Stewart (33) played on when well set and both Nick Knight (30) and Ben Hollioake were run out before the task was completed with 21 overs to spare.

If Dougie Brown does take the new ball it will mean his decision not to play for his native Scotland, as he was asked to do in the World Cup qualifying tournament earlier this year, is irreversible. "Everyone wants to play for their country and I'm no different, even if in my case you need to put the word `their' in inverted commas," he explained.

"The bottom line is that I'm still Scottish and very proud of it. But I would be thrilled to bits to represent England - it would the pinnacle of my career so far.

"The next pinnacle would be to go out there and do really well.

"I'm very ambitious and I want to appear at the highest level possible," said the 28-year-old, who did not start playing cricket until he was 14 and has been a key member of Warwickshire's successful one-day team for several seasons.

"Who wants to be a tea boy when you could be a managing director. That for me is representing England."

The guitar-playing, Alloa Athletic -supporting all-rounder believes that the players who helped Scotland to reach the World Cup should have the honour of representing them when the tournament is staged in England during the summer of 1999.

The way Brown's game has progressed over the last year or so his own future looks bright.

"I'm very pleased with the way it's going at the moment," he said. "We have had a great week in Pakistan and I feel I'm bowling well and picking up a bit more experience with every match."

Despite making hard work of the small target yesterday the five-wicket win made it three victories out of three and Adam Hollioake's men are in good heart for the stiffer challenges ahead.

"It has been a very useful exercise and the people of Lahore have treated us royally," said the tour manager David Graveney. The squad leave Pakistan today and head for Sharjah.

England won toss

PAKISTAN A

Babar Zaman c Stewart b D R Brown 1

Salim Elahi c Stewart b D R Brown 0

Yousaf Youhana c Thorpe b B C Hollioake 39

Naseer Ahmed c Stewart b D R Brown 6

Rana Qayyum c Stewart b B C Hollioake 12

Humanyun Farhat c Knight b Croft 31

Shahzad Butt lbw b Croft 9

Ali Rizvi b Ealham 1

Shahid Nazir c and b Ealham 3

*Aqib Javed lbw b Croft 2

Jaffar Nazir not out 0

Extras (lb9 w4) 13

Total (38.3 overs) 117

Fall: 1-0 2-9 3-38 4-55 5-71 6-94 7-95 8-109 9-112.

Bowling: Martin 7-1-19-0; D R Brown 7-2-25-3; B C Hollioake 7-0-32-2; Ealham 10-4-17-2; Croft 5.3-0-10-3; A J Hollioake 2-1-5-0.

ENGLAND

A D Brown c Yousaf b Aqib 16

A J Stewart b Shahzad 33

N V Knight run out 30

G P Thorpe not out 10

G A Hick c Yousaf b Jaffar 9

B C Hollioake run out 1

*A J Hollioake not out 7

Extras (lb3 w4 nb5) 12

Total (for 5, 28.1 overs) 118

Fall: 1-27 2-72 3-84 4-97 5-98.

Did not bat: M A Ealham, D R Brown, R D B Croft, P J Martin.

Bowling: Aqib 5-0-27-1; Shahid 5-0-22-0; Jaffar 7-0-28-1; Shahzad 6-0- 23-1; Ali 5.1-2-15-0.

Umpires: Muhammad Aslan and Adhar Zaidi.