THE master did his best to hand out a lesson to the apprentices but in the end even a polished 73 from Read professional Akram Raza wasn't enough to prevent the Rashid Latif Academy from getting their English tour off to a winning start at Great Harwood.

While Raza was at the wicket in company with Harwood batsman Daniel Cheesbrough, the Jennings Ribblesdale League XI looked capable of mounting a successful pursuit of the tourists' 45-over total of 262-9.

The pair had come together with the league side struggling at 113-5, despite some early hard hitting by Padiham paid man Faheem Fazal who blasted 45 off 28 balls with seven fours and a six.

The Pakistani trio of Farham Adil, Naseem Ashraf and Ata-ur-Rehman had all gone cheaply but Raza first repaired the damage and then hauled his side back into contention.

The 35-year-old is a veteran of some 49 one-day internationals and nine Tests and as the asking rate began to rise he got after the young Academy attack.

Raza, who survived one spilled chance on the boundary at wide mid-wicket, was particularly severe on the spinners as he punished anything short and played one notable wristy on-drive all along the floor for four.

The league side needed a daunting 137 from their final 20 overs but with Raza receiving excellent support from Cheesbrough the target began to look possible.

Raza reached his 50 off 52 balls after 69 minutes at the crease and then added a further 23 in just 19 balls as he took the total onto 195 in the 39th-over.

With Cheesbrough also finding the boundary with increasing regularity a decent sized crowd looked set for an exciting finish until Raza's innings ended when he holed out to long-on after hitting two sixes and nine fours.

That catch effectively sealed victory for the Academy side who also denied Cheesbrough, who hasn't had the best of starts to the season, a deserved half-century when he pulled to deep mid-wicket off the lively Mohammad Zahid for 41 made off 63 balls with three fours and a six.

That was with the score on 208 and the end quickly followed when last man Oliver Newby perished in the final over with the league side still 52 runs adrift.

The Academy's potential Pakistani stars of the future quickly got to grips with English conditions with half-centuries for openers Zafar Zadoon and Mohammad Farrukh.

Amir Hanif, who has played one-day internationals for his country, kept the momentum going with a composed 49 and the tourists then pushed themselves out of reach thanks to a whirlwind half-century from numer seven Imran Javed, whose 54 came off just 36 deliveries with five fours and three sixes.

Blackburn Northern's former Test player Rehman collected three wickets but the pick of the 'home' bowlers was Ashraf, the Cherry Tree professional collecting two for 25 from nine tidy overs.