Imran Tahir has fitted an awful lot into his itinerant cricketing career. Since Since the 29-year-old former Pakistan A leg spinner made his debut in 1996, he has played for nine domestic first-class teams in Pakistan, three counties (plus one minor county) and a South African franchise, not to mention numerous English club teams, most recently Moddershall, of the North Staffordshire & South Cheshire League, for whom he took five wickets on Saturday.

The latest stop for this rolling stone is his attempt to fill the shoes of Shane Warne, no small task, having signed for Hampshire last week and made his one-day debut on Sunday. His two previous stints in county cricket - three matches for Middlesex in 2003 and one for Yorkshire last year - were less than spectacular, yielding one wicket for 337, but he had more luck yesterday. He took the first three Lancashire wickets to fall, turning his leg-breaks and bowling a liberal smattering of googlies to finish with four for 80. His dismissal of Steven Croft with the last ball of the day, bowled on the back foot, left the game nicely balanced.

After the departures of Warne and Shaun Udal, Hampshire have been pining for a decent spinner, so Imran can expect a heavy workload and he bowled 31 overs yesterday. Lou Vincent top-edged a sweep to short fine leg, Iain Sutcliffe nicked a googly to slip and Paul Horton was caught at short leg. On an easy-paced pitch, three Lancashire batsmen reached fifty, but Horton's 66 was their highest score.

Stuart Law was perhaps the most culpable of the batsman, departing after an uncharacteristic loss of concentration directly after reaching his half-century from 104 balls. Attempting to pull a ball from outside off stump off David Balcombe, Law managed only to sky a catch to mid-wicket. Before the catch had even been taken, Law had let out an angry curse.

Chris Tremlett's lacklustre performance with the ball offered a few clues as to why the England selectors preferred Darren Pattinson at Headingley last week. This surface may lack the pace and bounce of some Old Trafford pitches, but Tremlett seldom looked a threat.

This was in marked contrast to Imran, who also had a catch dropped, when Croft was put down at slip by Sean Ervine. Otherwise the much-travelled leg spinner, with his alice band and blond-streaked hair, could reflect on a highly satisfactory first day with his latest set of team-mates.

Lancashire: First Innings
P J Horton c Brown b Tahir 66
L Vincent c Lumb b Tahir 58
I J Sutcliffe c Ervine b Tahir 20
*S G Law c Brown b Balcombe 51
F du Plessis not out 37
S J Croft b Tahir 18
L D Sutton not out 0
Extras (lb 4, w 1, nb 6) 11

Total (5 wkts, 84 overs) 261

G Chapple, S I Mahmood, G Keedy and D G Cork to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-110, 2-143, 3-158, 4-223, 5-261.

Bowling: Tremlett 15-3-38-0; Tomlinson 10-2-37-0; Mascarenhas 13-3-40-0; Tahir 31-9-80-4; Balcombe 13-3-35-1; Ervine 2-0-7-0.

Hampshire: C C Benham, M J Brown, J P Crawley, S M Ervine, M J Lumb, *A D Mascarenhas, N Pothas, Imran Tahir, D J Balcombe, C T Tremlett, J A Tomlinson.

Umpires: J F Steele and G I Burgess.