Matt Prior grasped his opportunity to impress at the top of the order, and Paul Collingwood quickly transferred his Test form into the one-day arena, as England recovered from a difficult start to their one-off warm-up match against Pakistan A.
At the innings break, they had compiled a decent 236 for 7 in 45 overs, with Collingwood unbeaten on 75 from 79 balls. Earlier, Prior had been the main man for England. In the absence of Marcus Trescothick, he took his opportunity to impress at the top of the order and cracked a boundary-laden 72.
Pakistan A won the toss and chose to bowl first in the leafy surrounds of Bagh-e-Jinnah. Because of bad-light issues, this match has been designated a 45-over-a-side affair, although even with a 9.30am start - half-an-hour earlier than was the case for last week's Test - it is unlikely that a result will be possible unless England can rattle through the opposition.
On a misty morning, survival was tricky in the early stages of England's innings, and Prior and Andrew Strauss added just 21 runs in the first six overs before Strauss was caught behind off Riaz Afridi for 5. Fresh off the plane from England, where he had been attending the birth of his first child, and named captain for this fixture as well, it was a rude reacquaintance with the country.
But as the sun cut through the clouds and the early life in the pitch died down, Prior began to unfurl the selection of strokes that could earn him a role as England's Supersub when Trescothick returns to the top of the order. He added 76 for the second wicket with Vikram Solanki, who has been offered another opportunity in the absence of Michael Vaughan, before Solanki was superbly caught for 26 by Tahir Khan, running back from point to take a skied swish over his shoulder.
That gave Abdul Razzaq a welcome wicket on his comeback from injury, and soon afterwards Kevin Pietersen's difficult tour continued, as he was bowled by a beauty from Yasir Arafat for 2. Prior's performance came to an end soon afterwards as he top-edged a sweep to short backward square-leg, giving Tahir his first wicket of the innings.
But Collingwood came into his own in the middle order, marshalling the remainder of the innings as a selection of colleagues played handy cameos around him. England's team for this match includes all three one-day specialists - Solanki, Kabir Ali and Ian Blackwell, as well as Prior and James Anderson, neither of whom took part in the Test series. Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison have been rested ahead of the first one-day international in three days' time, while Vaughan is back home in England preparing for surgery on his injured right knee.
Blackwell, who has a golden opportunity to cement a slot in the side ahead of the World Cup next winter, had moved along to a quickfire 15 when he was caught behind off Iftikhar Rao, while Kabir's innings ended in freakish circumstances, when his thumping straight drive cannoned off Collingwood's shoulder and looped into the hands of Rafitullah Mohammad at mid-on.
