LAHORE, 12 March 2004 — Pakistan A opener Taufiq Umar blasted a match-winning century to hand India an embarrassing six-wicket defeat in their one-day warm-up match yesterday.

Taufiq hammered 104 in 89 balls, including 13 fours and two sixes. He put on 127 in just 9.3 overs with former Test opener Imran Nazir (65) to enable the local side overhaul India’s imposing total of 335 for six with four overs to spare.

This was India’s only warm-up match in the tour and their five-match One-Day International series starts in Karachi tomorrow.

Their strong batting line-up lived up to its reputation with Rahul Dravid undefeated on 92 while Sachin Tendulkar (76) and Virender Sehwag (75) looked in top form in their 149-run opening stand.

Sehwag, who cracked 13 fours and a six, was the first to go and was followed soon after by skipper Saurav Ganguly, who was out once again trying to fend off a short ball.

Tendulkar, who suffered with a stiff back on the eve of the team’s departure on Tuesday, hammered 12 fours in his 82-ball knock.

But Taufiq stole the show, punishing Zaheer Khan for 31 runs and Lakshmipathy Balaji for 39 from their pedestrian three-over opening spells. Taufiq and Nazir were in devastating form, bringing up the 100 in just seven overs. Their team never looked back after that.

Faisal Iqbal chipped in with an unbeaten 50 and Qaiser Abbas was not out on 38.

“We’ve got a young bowling attack, who are very inexperienced. It’s just a question of going back to the practice nets and putting in some hard work before the next match,” Indian coach John Wright said.

India are in Pakistan for their first full tour in more than 14 years.

The Indian government had banned all bilateral cricket between the neighbors due to political tensions over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Relations between the countries have improved over the last year and this tour is seen as a symbol of the peace process.

England Take Early

Honors in First Test

In Kingston, England made a good start to their attempt to win a series in the Caribbean for the first time in 36 years as they reduced West Indies to 81-3 at lunch on day one of the first test, including the prized wicket of captain Brian Lara.

Lara and Devon Smith added 51 for the third wicket as the home side recovered from 22 for two but Simon Jones, playing in only his third test and first since injuring his knee 16 months ago, had Lara caught for 23 just before the interval.

Smith was unbeaten on 42, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul was on one at lunch.

Lara won the toss and chose to bat on a good-looking pitch, but must have been ruing the decision when Chris Gayle (five) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (nought) were dismissed within 40 minutes.

Gayle smashed one shot over cover off Matthew Hoggard before he played back to Steve Harmison and deflected the ball onto his stumps. Sarwan was then trapped in front by Hoggard.

Lara then joined Smith and after a couple of streaky boundaries behind square, he found his timing, with one lovely flick off his legs bringing up one of his four boundaries.