AT the end of the last match of the series, Pakistan stood well and truly above England. So far above and ahead that the team management and players themselves would not have planned it this big before the start of the series. And by the same token, England stood so far down and out that it could have never imagined before undertaking the tour. While there can be little doubt about Pakistan having played the better cricket during the entire series, the main difference between the two sides, as I see it, was in terms of intensity in the two camps and the keenness to outdo the opponent. Pakistan was most definitely the hungrier of the two sides.
After England lost the first Test at Multan on the fifth day after being the better side on all four of the earlier days, I had mentioned the fact the English loss had nothing to do with the playing surface or any other thing. There was no demons in the pitch which played with as much docility as it had done on the previous four days. The demons were all in the heads of English players. Otherwise the total they had to get on that occasion was so abysmally low that they should have faced no problems in view of the perfect batting strip on which they had to do that.
In Lahore again, all they had to do was to play out the second innings, but they could not do it. Keeping in view the nature of the playing surface, it should not have been a problem. But, as cricket has proved time and again, it is a game which is lost or won as much in the head as on the ground. Till lunch on the final day, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood hardly had a problem, but just when it appeared that the two might have done enough for the rest of the side to play out for time, they undid all their hard work by going down in a terrible heap.
Naturally, there could have been nothing wrong with the pitch during the 40-minute lunch break, and there was no change in the weather conditions either. There was not even the new ball. The two English batsmen could not get back into their groove after resumption, and once a wicket fell, it was as if Pakistan had released a cat among English pigeons!
It was all about intensity, and the Pakistanis wanted to win much more keenly than the Englishmen wanted to save the match. After their disappointment in the first innings, they felt low. Pakistan drilled them down to dust by batting England out of the match. With hopes of ending the series one-all gone, there was not enough gumption left in store for the Englishmen to fall back on. The fell from grace, and they fell pathetically.
I wish to acknowledge with great pleasure the key role played by Shoaib Akhtar throughout the series. He was a man transformed, and it is time to stand up and honour him with a salute. I would have done it straightaway, but something compels me to stop short of it. I don’t want things to get into his head and make him do once again what had been hampering his own and the team’s performance on the field for the last few years. So, Shoaib, while you have done wonderfully well during the entire series — every single day of the fifteen playing days — and you have won the hearts of all of us, please don’t get anything distract you ever again. You yourself have seen what you are worth with a ball in your hand, now don’t ever let anything to make you worth even a wee bit less. If you could sustain it, and I am quite sure that you will, Pakistan Cricket can look forward to some exciting days ahead.
AT the end of the last match of the series, Pakistan stood well and truly above England. So far above and ahead that the team management and players themselves would not have planned it this big before the start of the series. And by the same token, England stood so far down and out that it could have never imagined before undertaking the tour. While there can be little doubt about Pakistan having played the better cricket during the entire series, the main difference between the two sides, as I see it, was in terms of intensity in the two camps and the keenness to outdo the opponent. Pakistan was most definitely the hungrier of the two sides.
It was all about intensity, and the Pakistanis wanted to win much more keenly than the Englishmen wanted to save the match. After their disappointment in the first innings, they felt low. Pakistan drilled them down to dust by batting England out of the match. With hopes of ending the series one-all gone, there was not enough gumption left in store for the Englishmen to fall back on. The fell from grace, and they fell pathetically.
