Pakistan Go 1-0 Up against England

Pakistan Go 1-0 Up against England

Pakistan has beaten the number one ranked Test team of the world, England in the first of the three-match Test series at Dubai by an emphatic margin of 10 wickets after a match-winning bowling performance by Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul on the third day of the
match.

Considering the sort of crisis Pakistan cricket team faced on the tour of England in 2010, this is a massive victory and a clear message to the rest of the cricketing world that Pakistan remains a major force in international cricket.

England is without doubt one of the best Test teams of the world but there have been some question marks over the ability of Andrew Strauss and company to deliver the goods in the conditions of sub-continent, which are quite similar to the ones in UAE.

Pakistan’s major weapon and one of the world’s best spin bowlers in the current era, Saeed Ajmal turned out to be the real difference between the two teams as he claimed 10 wickets in the match. It remains to be seen that how the English batsmen will manage
to cope with the wily off-spinner in the next two matches.

During the presentation ceremony after the match, Pakistan’s captain, Misbah ul Haq was jubilant on his team’s performance and said that he was expecting the match to go down to the wire but his bowlers changed the complexion of the game after lunch on day
three.

The Pakistan captain is extremely happy with the pitch in Dubai and gave the credit to the ground-man.

Misbah said, "We didn’t expect it to be so easy for us. Ajmal put us on the path to victory. Rehman and Hafeez are contributing very well. Conditions are not the easiest in Dubai for batting. After 2010 (in England), the players wanted to improve. I’d also
like to congratulate the curator for this wicket."

On the other side of the coin, English captain, Andrew Strauss vows to come up with a better show in the next match, which is going to start on the 25^th of this month at Abu Dhabi.

"Losing five in the first session put us on the backfoot, We don’t want to push the panic button. All credit to Pakistan, I thought our bowlers did well but our batsmen can do a lot better. Our preparation has been pretty good otherwise," said Strauss.

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Jan 19 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry