Pakistan celebrates series sweep
It’s up there with thrashing England. Oh hang on, it’s better.
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq was handed the pleasant task on Monday of comparing his side’s three-nil series win over England in 2012 with a two-nil sweep of Australia, both in the United Arab Emirates.
Monday’s 356-run victory in the second Test against Australia lifts Pakistan from sixth to third on the ICC rankings, one spot below Australia.
And it came without star spinner Saeed Ajmal who was ruled out of the series because of a chucking ban.
“It’s really tough to rank whatever the best one I had a captain. Either England or now this,” Misbah said.
“Both the teams came to us after playing some wonderful cricket back home so both the series are good to have in the memory.
“But considering the fact that we had a far better bowling combination for the England series and this time despite having an inexperienced bowling line up, nobody could have thought we can turn around and beat Australia.
“But still considering these sort of conditions (in UAE), the way they were struggling against spin even in India, we fancied our chances that we can really do well.
“We knew if we can post good totals our bowling though inexperienced is still capable of getting them out.
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“So everybody performed well and it was remarkable.
“So this you can understand is a big achievement.
“This series, you could say best ever series won by us.”
Left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar came into the series with only two Tests under his belt, while legspinner Yasir Shah had no Test experience.
Zulfiqar took 14 wickets at 26.35 and Yasir, who taught himself to bowl watching a video of Australian great Shane Warne day after day, claimed 12 at 17.25.
It’s Pakistan’s first Test-series win over Australia since 1994.
The 40-year-old Misbah hit two centuries in the second Test, the sixth and seventh of his career.
It was his 50th Test. And just in case he needed something else to remember the match by, he equalled West Indies’ great Viv Richards’ world record by cracking a hundred off 56 balls.
“We got the belief. That’s why we delivered and everyone performed,” Misbah said modestly.
“Beating Australia two-nil, it’s a great feeling,” he said.
FULL SCOREBOARD – SECOND TEST
Pakistan 1st Innings Mins Balls 4s 6s
A SHEHZAD lbw Lyon 35 86 64 3 0
M HAFEEZ c Haddin b Johnson 45 157 89 1 0
A ALI c Warner b Starc 109 349 250 6 0
Y KHAN b Siddle 213 509 349 15 2
M UL-HAQ c & b Smith 101 210 168 10 1
A SHAFIQ b Starc 21 43 32 1 1
S AHMED not out 19 44 22 3 0
Y SHAH not out 1 18 14 0 0
Sundries (10b 11lb 1w 4nb) 26
Six wickets (dec) for 570
Fall: 57 (Shehzad), 96 (Hafeez), 332 (A Ali), 513 (ul-Haq), 537 (Y Khan), 561 (Shafiq).
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Bowling: M Johnson 25-7-59-1 (2nb), M Starc 27-3-86-2 (1w), P Siddle 31-8-75-1 (1nb), N Lyon 37-1-154-1, M Marsh 12-2-32-0, G Maxwell 16-2-78-0, M Clarke 6-0-24-0, S Smith 10-0-41-1 (1nb).
Batting time: 713 mins. Overs: 164.
Australia 1st Innings Mins Balls 4s 6s
D WARNER c Shah b R Ali 19 47 28 3 0
C ROGERS c Ahmed b I Khan 5 18 8 0 0
N LYON b R Ali 15 102 85 0 0
G MAXWELL b Babar 37 49 28 2 1
M CLARKE b I Khan 47 92 62 7 0
S SMITH lbw Babar 0 5 6 0 0
M MARSH c R Ali b I Khan 87 164 116 13 1
B HADDIN b Shah 10 32 22 2 0
M JOHNSON c Hafeez b Shah 0 7 7 0 0
P SIDDLE c Shah b Hafeez 28 66 45 3 0
M STARC not out 0 2 0 0 0
Sundries (6lb 7nb) 13
Total 261
Fall: 21 (Rogers), 34 (Warner), 75 (Maxwell), 97 (Lyon), 100 (Smith), 164 (Clarke), 193 (Haddin), 199 (Johnson), 261 (Marsh), 261 (Siddle).
Bowling: I Khan 14-1-60-3 (1nb), M Hafeez 5.2-0-13-1, Z Babar 25-5-94-2, R Ali 9-0-41-2 (2nb), Y Shah 14-2-47-2.
Batting time: 298 mins. Overs: 67.2.
Pakistan 2nd Innings Mins Balls 4s 6s
A SHEHZAD b Johnson 14 4 6 2 1
M HAFEEZ c Starc b Johnson 3 13 6 0 0
A ALI not out 100 261 174 6 0
Y KHAN lbw Smith 46 175 122 3 0
M UL-HAQ not out 101 75 57 11 5
Sundries (23b 4lb 1w 1nb) 29
Three wickets (dec) for 293
Fall: 14 (Shehzad), 21 (Hafeez), 152 (Y Khan).
Bowling: M Johnson 7-1-45-2, N Lyon 18-3-48-0, M Starc 11.4-2-56-0 (1w), P Siddle 14-4-48-0 (1nb), S Smith 6-0-54-1, M Marsh 4-1-15-0.
Batting time: 266 mins. Overs: 60.4.
Australia 2nd Innings Mins Balls 4s 6s
C ROGERS c Shafiq b Babar 2 33 27 0 0
D WARNER c Shah b Hafeez 58 110 75 6 0
G MAXWELL lbw Babar 4 12 12 0 0
M CLARKE b Babar 5 10 10 0 0
S SMITH lbw Shah 97 250 204 12 0
M MARSH c Shafiq b Hafeez 47 163 130 6 0
B HADDIN b Babar 13 40 38 1 0
M JOHNSON b Shah 0 7 5 0 0
P SIDDLE not out 4 20 11 0 0
M STARC b Shah 2 16 21 0 0
N LYON c A Ali b Babar 0 1 1 0 0
Sundries (5b 1lb 3nb 5pen) 14
Total 246
Fall: 19 (Rogers), 31 (Maxwell), 43 (Clarke), 101 (Warner), 208 (Marsh), 238 (Smith), 238 (Haddin), 238 (Johnson), 245 (Starc), 246 (Lyon).
Bowling: R Ali 8-6-3-0, I Khan 8-1-29-0, M Hafeez 17-4-38-2, Z Babar 32.3-2-120-5 (1nb), Y Shah 22-4-44-3 (2nb), A Ali 1-0-1-0.
Batting time: 339 mins. Overs: 88.3.
Umpires: Nigel Llong (ENG), Richard Kettleborough (ENG).
Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI).
Third Umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA).
Result: Pakistan won by 356 runs
Series: Pakistan win the 2-match series 2-0
