Pakistan's Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal complete England's humiliation
• Pakistan win by 10 wickets and lead series 1-0
Pakistan Zindabad! England's No1 status seems so last year now as an exuberant Pakistan team consigned to the dust of time all the past glory that took them to the top. In a cricket world that spins rapidly, and more than for many years finds itself in a state of flux, Pakistan's victory in the first Test, by 10 wickets, with a little more than two days to spare, merely serves to endorse the renaissance of their cricket under the studious old hand Misbah-ul-Haq since the dark days came to an end with the conviction of felons.
They have an excellent side. England can have no quibble, for they held plenty of aces themselves, from their standing and confidence to winning the toss on a surface that would reasonably be expected to deteriorate and which, in the three days it was allowed, proved to be an excellent Test match pitch. Instead, they were outplayed, most glaringly with bat and, to a much lesser degree ball (these things are relative to the batting at the other end), undone by a heady combination of mesmeric spin and gormless batting in the first innings, and, just when they might have expected more conjuring tricks from Saeed Ajmal, by urgent and skilled pace bowling from Umar Gul second time around.
Facing a first-innings deficit of 146, after the battling Adnan Akmal had made a fine 61 before being last out, giving a fourth wicket to Graeme Swann, Gul, bounded in to remove Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss – the captain not without the controversy of an inconclusive referral by him. Gul then suckered Kevin Pietersen into hooking into a transparent trap and, in scoring nought to go with his first‑innings two, registering his worst match as a Test player.
At 25 for three, and with collective minds in turmoil, the result henceforth was never in doubt as the Pakistan bowlers chipped away. Only Jonathan Trott, with 49, showed any resistance until a late cameo from Graeme Swann, 39, helped England avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat on a shirt front. Until Trott offered a reckless shot to give Gul a fourth wicket, he had batted with the sort of skill, technique and restraint that had eluded his team-mates. Indeed, had Gul not been shown to have overstepped by a smidgeon in gaining an lbw decision against Swann before he had scored, he would have had five wickets and the game would have been done an hour earlier.
He had to be content with four and instead Ajmal finished off the innings with a third wicket to complete match figures of 10 for 97 and gain the man of the match award. Pakistan, therefore, batted again, with 13 overs of the day remaining, the ground in shadow and the ring-of-fire floodlighting forming a pearl necklace round the rim of the stadium. It took Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar (well, Hafeez on his tod) 22 deliveries to knock off the runs and spark celebrations, the victory arriving emphatically with Hafeez pulling Broad to the midwicket boundary.
So there will be plenty of time for England to ponder the awfulness of this performance. Just to put it in perspective, it is the first Test that they have lost since the Australians raised their own hopes in Perth before Christmas in 2010. It puts them, of course, a match down in a three Test series, and England have not recovered to win from such a deficit since losing the first Test in New Zealand in 2008.
Against this however, comes England's record of not having lost successive Tests since South Africa won at Headingley and Birmingham in 2008 to precipitate a change of regime. Their past four defeats, going back to the Ashes series of 2009, have been followed by wins. This is a resilient team that do not become a bad one overnight or on the back of a single loss and they have the capability to overturn a setback. This, however, will not be easy in this part of the world. Abu Dhabi, the venue for the second Test, which starts next Wednesday, is said to be less forgiving to bowlers, and the return to Dubai for the third will at worst produce something of the same and could well be made more batsman friendly. As Pakistan showed in the West Indies recently, they may start out every match trying to win but they will not throw away a series lead in pursuit of further glory if pragmatism is the best option.
England lost this match in the first session when they went into lunch at 52 for five, the old case of hitting the ground hobbling. There had been concern about the health of the batting during the two warm-up matches, and it manifested itself here. The unusual break the players have enjoyed may have allowed batteries to be recharged but it also disrupts the rhythm of playing long-form (if we may call it that) cricket. If Andy Flower was afraid of complacency, then he would have had equal cause to be wary of this effect as well. Quite how Graham Gooch addresses this issue before the next Test will furrow his brow even more, and is sure not to involve too many rounds of golf or excursions on racing yachts in the Gulf.
The bowlers, meanwhile, deserve praise, bowling manfully on the second day to get England back into contention. There will be debate to come about the balance of the side, or the personnel, but to bowl Pakistan out for 338 on a pitch such as this was commendable. You may as well blame a goalkeeper for the lack of goals at the other end.
No comments:
Post a Comment