Umar Akmal demolishes Kent attack

Cricketer Umar Akmal continued his golden form when he hit a scintillating century to lift Pakistan on the opening day of their warm-up match against Kent at St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury.

The young master blaster, who opened Pakistan’s marathon tour of England with a match-winning fifty in a Twenty20 match against MCC at Lord’s on Sunday, was in full flow on his way to glorious 153 to take Pakistan to 360 in their first innings. Later, Kent played out a solitary Umar Gul over and were 2-0 at stumps.

On a day when most of his other teammates flopped with the bat, Umar was in his element hitting 17 fours and five sixers in his 188-ball knock that took him 266 minutes.

Pakistan lost their top six batters for just 180 before Umar dominated a 111-run stand for the seventh wicket with tail-ender Abdur Rehman (30). Umar Gul then hit an unbeaten 30 to take Pakistan to a respectable total. Other main run-getters for the tourists were Kamran Akmal (28), Shoaib Malik (27), Salman Butt (26) and Fawad Alam (20). Skipper Shahid Afridi fell for a duck.

Spinner Mark Lawson was the pick of the Kent bowlers, finishing with 4-93.