An unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 68 between Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Sami took the gloss off Anil Kumble’s first day as India captain after he appeared to have taken control of the first Test against Pakistan in Delhi.

Everything was going right for India, who will move above England into second place in the LG ICC Test rankings if they win all three Tests against their great rivals, when Zaheer Khan removed Salman Butt and Younus Khan in his opening spell and Kumble picked up three wickets, all bowled, to reduce Pakistan to 142 for eight by tea. Then Misbah, who had never reached fifty in his seven previous Tests, dug in for more than four hours to make 71 off 204 balls and Sami survived 77 balls in scoring 20 as Pakistan recovered to 210 for eight.

Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan all-rounder who played for Surrey from 2002 until his release last summer, has joined Kent on a two-year contract. Azhar, 32 and married to an English woman, expects to receive a British passport by the end of the year, in which case he will no longer be considered an overseas player.

Bill Gordon, the head groundsman at Surrey’s Brit Oval, has won the groundsman of the year award for the fifth year in succession. He was top in both the four-day and one-day categories, with Trent Bridge’s Steve Birks runner-up in the former and joint runner-up with Taunton’s Phil Frost in the latter. Gordon, 62, has worked at the Oval since 1964 and won the award every year since he became head groundsman in 2003.

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