Taunton, England: Pakistan's first match since a betting scandal engulfed the team on their tour of England ended with them having just 11 fit players at their disposal on Thursday.
Pakistan won a one-day tour game against southwest county Somerset by eight runs in the last over in their final match before Twenty20 and one-day series against England. But Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal was hit in the face batting in the nets at Somerset's County Ground before play started on Thursday and missed the warm-up match entirely while all-rounder Abdul Razzaq suffered a back problem warming-up between innings and was unable to bowl. Continue reading below
Shafqat Rana, Pakistan's associate manager, told reporters Razzaq's condition was being assessed. Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed, speaking before play started, said he expected Umar Akmal to be fit for the remainder of the tour.
Saeed added replacements would be called up to take the squad back to its original 16-man size but said he did not know who the new players would be.
Butt, Asif and Aamer all pulled out from the tour after a meeting with Pakistan's High Commissioner (ambassador) Wajid Shamsul Hasan and Ijaz Butt, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, in London on Thursday.
"If they do something bad, you need to give them a punishment, but we are still waiting for the result and I'm praying that what happens is good for the team," said Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi at the toss.
The match passed of without incident and a collection amongst the crowd of 4,000, who acknowledged all the tourists' good play with traditional polite applause, raised 2,580 pounds (3,971 dollars) for the Pakistan flood-relief fund. Somerset chief executive Richard Gould told reporters the club would round that figure up to 5,000 pounds (7,696 dollars).
Pakistan play the first of two Twenty20 internationals against England, both in Cardiff, on Sunday. The teams then contest a five-match one-day series starting at the Riverside, the home ground of northeast county Durham, on September 10.
