Cricket: Captain cool hails resurgent Pakistan

Misbah shares the dressing-room’s mentality after series-win against England.

ABU DHABI:

With yet another series in the bag, captain Misbahul Haq acknowledged Pakistan’s excellent performance which saw them win the second Test against England by 72 runs in a thrilling finish and also take an assailable 2-0 lead after the 10-wicket Dubai thrashing.

Left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman rocked England – chasing a tricky 145-run target – with six for 62 which helped Pakistan bowl out their opponents for just 72. This was the world’s top-ranked Test team’s lowest total against Pakistan, worse than the 130 they made at The Oval in 1954 and again in Lahore in 1987.

Captain delighted with win

Misbah termed Pakistan’s win a huge achievement.

“It’s a big win against the top side in the world,” said Misbah, who has won eight of the 14 Tests since taking over as captain in October 2010. “I don’t have the words to describe this win which was made possible through a team effort.”

Misbah, who is yet to lose a Test series as captain, said his team has proved it can do well against the world’s best teams.

“There was a lot of pre-series talk that it’s our first big real test against a top team, so we had a very good opportunity to prove ourselves and the team has done well to prove this.”

Pakistan were able to at least set some sort of target by Azhar Ali (68) and Asad Shafiq (43) who put on an invaluable 88 runs for the fifth wicket before left-armer Monty Panesar finished them off for 214 with six for 62.

Misbah said his team believed they could beat England despite setting them what looked on the face of it a modest run chase.

“I think we had the realisation that we will have to fight whatever the target is and we also knew that the England batsmen were not scoring runs, they were struggling, especially when the ball was turning. We were hopeful that we could make a match out of it and in the end the bowlers proved that and bowled well to give us the win,” said Misbah of his bowlers which saw Saeed Ajmal reach the 100-wicket landmark with three for 22 in the second-innings.

He became the fastest to 100 wickets for Pakistan, beating Waqar Younis and Mohammad Asif who reached the target in their 20th Test.

Asked will his team look for a clean sweep against England, Misbah said, “We’ll try to do our best, we are up against the best team so they can come back in the series, but we will do what we can do, play well.”

Geoffrey Boycott

“I’ve seen some bad performances over the years but this is as bad as I’ve seen. England didn’t seem to have a clue where they were going to get a run. There was more chance of them getting an edge, or getting byes or leg byes.”

Ramiz Raja

“It’s a big deal indeed, folks. Beating the best side in Test cricket, bowling them out like toddlers. We can generously shower our team with love and praise after this outstanding accomplishment.”

Iqbal Qasim

“Pakistani spinners completely dazzled the English batting line-up. Rehman is in great form and Ajmal also bowled very well. Pakistan have shown that they can easily beat the world number one side.”

Zaka Ashraf

“Every team in the world will now sit up and take notice of Pakistan after the way they have performed. England are worried too. We will definitely reward the team monetarily when they return to the country.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2012.