Date-stamped : 23 Jul97 - 09:34 Wednesday 23 July 1997 Tour Match: Openers blast winning trail for Pakistan A By David Green at Cheltenham Pakistan A (279-7) bt Gloucestershire (230) by 49 runs ATTRACTIVE innings from Saleem Elahi, 66, and Rana Qayyum, 56, underpinned Pakistan A`s imposing score in yesterday`s 50-over match at Cheltenham, and the tourists bowled and fielded impres- sive- ly to record a comfortable win. Gloucestershire, fielding a young side in which the only capped player was acting captain Martyn Ball, never looked likely to get close against notably steady bowling but Matthew Windows, 45, and Matthew Church, 49, both batted pretty well. Gloucestershire openers Nick Trainor and Windows found the go- ing hard against Shoaib Akhtar, pretty brisk off an enormously long run, and Abdul Razzaq, the latter breaking through with one that nipped back to bowl Trainor. Azhar Mahmood, tidy at medium-fast pace, then struck a double blow, having Tim Hancock caught at mid-off from a miscued drive and two balls later claiming Bobby Dawson leg before padding out a straight ball. Windows, meanwhile, was becalmed but, with Church driving pow- erfully after a nervy start, Windows began to look more con- vincing, timing his square cut well and placing the ball skil- fully through the on side. Ali Rizvi, a leg-spinner with pleasing variations of flight, and 15-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Malik bowled in harness and it was Malik who broke the partnership of 91, Church holing out at deep midwicket. In the next over Windows was caught and bowled by Rizvi off a leading edge and that scuppered any faint chance of victory Glouces- tershire had, though Reggie Williams`s defiant 38 re- duced the margin of defeat. Earlier, Pakistan`s innings had rather resembled a dumbbell, sub- stantial at each end but with little in the middle. Openers Ali Naqvi, who made 96 in their win over Somerset, and Elahi, a double centurion at Worcester, gave them a flying start. Elahi, who survived a difficult chance in the gully off his first ball, bowled by James Averis, was marginally the more fluent but Naqvi also played some wristy strokes, the 100 coming up in the 17th over. Ball`s tidy off-spin slowed progress somewhat and he bowled Naqvi through an ambitious pull. Mujahid Jamshed was run out by Han- cock from midwicket and then Ball caught and bowled Elahi, who had hit nine fours off 70 balls. When Hancock had Mohammad Wasim lbw and Farhan Adil caught be- hind, Pakistan were struggling, but powerful strokeplay from Mah- mood and Qayyum, who put on 95 in 19 overs, enabled them to set a test- ing target. Darren Shadford took three wickets in four balls as Lan- cashire won the Manchester Evening News floodlit challenge against York- shire at Old Trafford on Monday night. Yorkshire collapsed from 171 for three to 226 all out, losing by 13 runs. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)