ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Captain Misbah-ul-Haq wants people to stop bringing up Pakistan’s 2010 spot-fixing scandal after his team comfortably defeated top-ranked England in their test series.
England was bowled out for just 72 on Saturday after being set a target of 145 on the fourth day of the second test. Pakistan also won the first test inside three days, handing Andrew Strauss’s team a 10-wicket drubbing.
“I think the whole world should now stop talking about 2010,” Misbah said. “The whole world should acknowledge and accept that Pakistan cricket is coming up.”
The case led to three Pakistan cricketers being sent to a British prison last November.
“Such negative things can happen anywhere in the world and we must now forget it,” Misbah said.
Since Misbah was appointed captain in the wake of the scandal, Pakistan has not lost a test series — winning its last four against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England.
“I think whichever team is doing well it should be accepted and our team deserves that,” Misbah said. “Pakistan, with the self-confidence it has, will do better.”
Offspinner Saeed Ajmal mesmerized England in Dubai with a 10-wicket haul and added another seven scalps in Abu Dhabi to complete the quickest 100 wickets for Pakistan, needing just 19 test matches.
Former captain and coach Waqar Younis held the previous record when he reached the milestone in 20 tests and formed a lethal pace combination with Wasim Akram.
However, Ajmal’s brilliance was overshadowed by man-of-the-match Abdur Rehman in the second test when his 6-25 on Saturday just rolled over England in 36.1 overs.
“It’s a blessing to have a bowler like this,” Misbah said of Rehman, who took his first five-wicket haul in test matches. “Whenever he’s needed, whenever there’s a pressure situation he comes there and performs.
“When a bowler like Ajmal is not giving breakthroughs, Rehman comes and takes four to six wickets and that’s what he did today.”
Few critics gave Pakistan a chance before the series as it had not competed against any of the top four teams in the world over the previous year.
“There were lots of talks before the series that it’s our first real big test against a big team and whether we can perform well,” Misbah said. “The team has done well to prove this and I think I don’t have words to describe how big this win is.”
England’s vulnerability against slow bowlers was fully exposed by Ajmal, Rehman and even offspinner Mohammad Hafeez, who was given the new ball in the second innings.
“Even when we were batting we were having problems,” Misbah said. “But we also knew that England batsmen were also struggling, especially when the ball was turning and the bounce was good.”
Pakistan has now every chance to look for its first series whitewash against England when the teams meet again at Dubai on Feb. 3.
Misbah certainly sounded upbeat about the prospect.
“We will try our level best to do our best,” he said. “We have the best team up against us so they can come back. But what is in our control we will do.”
