Pakistan: Boring yet effective

Pakistan have really turned a new leaf off-late under the leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq. The icing was the recent whitewash of England in the just concluded series in the UAE, 3-0. England didn’t have a clue and they were outplayed in almost every session in this series. Most of the matches finished well before the final day.

Some pointers from the result of this series that made sure England lost their hold of the no.1 ranking.

• The solid spin department: Saeed Ajmal was always a star bowler in the ODIs and T20s. He can contain as well as bite. His contributions in the limited overs games are generally overshadowed by Shahid Afridi thanks to his performances as well as the superior charisma element. But now in Tests, there is no Afridi and Ajmal is the leader of the attack. He is a natural at leading the attack and with another competent spinner in Abdur Rehman, the spin kings literally tormented the poor Pommies. The pitch was helpful to say the least and Panesar (14 wkts), Swann (13 wkts) also bagged whatever was on offer. But, the Pakistani batsmen are much better in these conditions and at handling spin. The gulf in skill was huge.
• The Pakistani spinners bagging 43 of the total 60 wickets. A percentage of more than 70%. These numbers tell the tale completely. Umar Gul was buzzing as well. 11 wickets on dry pitches with no juice for the pacers. Commendable. Ajmal was the Man of the Series with 24 wkts while Rehman bagged 19 wickets. Spinners hunt in pairs. Substantiated yet again.
• Pakistan’s batting was the perfect example of sucking the opponent dry and frustrating them till the last bone. Such a slow, defensive approach. It worked. The inning’s run rate for Pakistan never crossed 2.5. Azhar Ali and Misbah himself led in this aspect, and their team mates followed the lead.
• The total failure of the English batsmen. Their bowlers did very well in taxing conditions and never allowed the Pakistan batsmen to get away to a flier. There wasn’t one huge score in this series. But, the English batsmen failed miserably. This hall of shame sunk to its lowest abyss during the 2nd innings of the 2nd Test when England, chasing 145, were shut out for a mere 72.

This result again proves that there is no single dominant team in world cricket right now. No point in having a rankings system when all the teams are tigers at home and lame lambs abroad. Pakistan deserves this winning break as they fight to have matches at home again. Their style might be hard on the eyes and puts viewers to sleep, yet it is effective in achieving the end result. A throwback to the era of Mudassar Nazar.

Misbah is nurturing a team of winners even though the style element is totally thrown out of the window. Afridi is there to take care of the style element when he struts his stuff in the limited overs games. But, for the 5 day affairs, it makes sense to have a pillow in hand while Pakistan are batting.