Indian batsmen fired in unison but the bowlers were made to work hard to find their rhythm by Pakistan 'A' opener Imran Farhat who served a warning with a sparkling hundred in the three-day warm up match in Lahore on Sunday.
Farhat staked a strong claim for a place in the first Test against India by blazing his way to a superb 107 to lead the home team's run chase against the visitors on the second day.
Left-handed Farhat, who had notched a ton against India in the second Test of the last series between the archrivals on their last visit in 2004, cut the Indian pace attack to ribbons with his audacious drives, cuts and pulls as the home team made 212 for four in reply to India's 414 for 7 declared at stumps.
Farhat, who struck 16 fours and a six in his 162-ball innings, and his captain Hasan Raza, who also made mincemeat of the wayward Indian attack in making a 62-ball 75 (10 fours and a six), added 160 runs for the third wicket in 172 balls after joining forces at a difficult 26 for 2.
Both used their punitive blade to punish the Indian bowlers who pitched short repeatedly on a good batting track to plunder runs at will.
The two batsmen carried the total from 26 to 186 before Raza edged Irfan Pathan to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and then a little while later Farhat too departed caught trying to cut Harbhajan Singh who found it difficult to grip the ball in the extremely cold conditions.
Farhat's blistering knock obviously has helped him stake a claim in the Test team especially with the reported indisposition due to typhoid of regular opener Yasir Hameed. He was dropped on 95 by Yuvraj Singh off Irfan Pathan.
Earlier, India declared at lunch after their batsmen ran up a huge total and then sent back Bazid Khan and Mohd. Wasim cheaply with the new ball, Ajit Agarkar and Pathan being the successful bowlers before Farhat and Raza got involved in the rollicking stand to tear apart the attack especially left armers Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh.
The two batsmen raised the 100-run stand for the third wicket in only 78 minutes and off 101 balls before the tea interval itself and continued in the same vein in the last session too before getting out to attacking shots.
Farhat drove extremely well off both feet against the pace bowlers, pulled with authority when the ball was dug in short.
At the other end, hosts' captain Hasan Raza, another Pakistani discard, also showed fine touch, by hitting left arm seamer R P Singh, included for only bowling and fielding as the 12th man under mutually agreed upon terms before the tie, for three fours -- all off the meat of the bat -- in one over to loosen the Indian bowlers' domination a bit before tea.
India had struck two early blows to send back opener Bazid Khan (6) and Mohd. Wasim by the 9th over.
Khan was consumed in the slip cordon by Laxman off Ajit Agarkar while Wasim fell leg before to Pathan trying to work the left arm pacer to leg.
The Indians, 298 for four overnight, declared their first innings closed at lunch at 414 for seven, which included Venkatasai Laxman (54) and Yuvraj Singh (59), who retired to give batting practice to the lower order batsmen.
Both the stylish middle order batsmen, not out on 25 and 11 overnight respectively, joined the Indian run feast at the picturesque ground in Lahore.
Laxman, negotiated the new ball taken by the home team soon after it was available on the second morning without much qualms barring the former taking a nasty lifter from Yasir Arafat on his fingers once.
Laxman, who played some spanking straight and square drives off the back foot, reached his half-century on the 33rd ball he faced under the sun warming the bodies on a freezing day.
Laxman, who reached his fifty in 135 minutes and off 96 balls, retired after making 54 at the end of the first hour's play to give a chance to wicket keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to spend some time in the middle.
Yuvraj completed his individual fifty in 124 minutes and off the 54th ball in the morning with seven hits to the fence before giving way to Irfan Pathan for some batting practice.
Scorecard:
Indians 1st innings
G Gambhir c Iftikhar Anjum b Mohammad Irshad 53
W Jaffer c Zulqarnain Haider b Umar Gul 58
R Dravid c Hasan Raza b Imran Farhat 63
SR Tendulkar c Zulqarnain Haider b Yasir Arafat 74
VVS Laxman retired 54
Yuvraj Singh retired 59
MS Dhoni c sub b Mohammad Irshad 22
IK Pathan not out 8
AB Agarkar not out 4
Extras (b 5, lb 4, nb 10) 19
Total (7 wickets declared, 104 overs) 414
DNB: RP Singh, Z Khan.
FoW: 1-81 (Gambhir, 23.6 ov), 2-153 (Jaffer, 38.5 ov), 3-220 (Dravid, 55.4 ov), 4-279 (Tendulkar, 68.1 ov), 5-357 (Laxman, 90.6 ov), 6-390 (Yuvraj Singh, 95.6 ov), 7-402 (Dhoni, 98.3 ov).
Bowling
Umar Gul 19-3-58-1
Iftikhar Anjum 15-3-62-0
Yasir Arafat 24-3-83-1 (3nb)
Mohammad Irshad 19-2-79-2 (4nb)
Imran Farhat 8-0-36-1
Mansoor Amjad 19-1-87-0 (3nb)
Pakistan A 1st innings
Imran Farhat c Khan b Harbhajan Singh 107
Bazid Khan c Laxman b Agarkar 6
Mohammad Wasim lbw b Pathan 1
Hasan Raza c Dhoni b Pathan 75
Faisal Iqbal not out 13
Asim Kamal not out 4
Extras (lb 3, nb 3) 6
Total (4 wickets, 48 overs) 212
To Bat: Iftikhar Anjum, Zulqarnain Haider, Mohammad Irshad, Mansoor Amjad, Umar Gul.
FoW: 1-14 (Bazid Khan, 7.2 ov), 2-26 (Mohammad Wasim, 8.4 ov), 3-186 (Hasan Raza, 36.6 ov), 4-198 (Imran Farhat, 41.5 ov).
Bowling
Pathan 13-3-61-2
Agarkar 9-2-28-1 (3nb)
Singh 6-0-33-0
Khan 7-0-43-0
Harbhajan Singh 13-1-44-1
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