da betsson： Home team’s 34-match unbeaten record shattered: Karachi, Dec 11: Pakistan plunged to depths ofdespair under darkness when England earned a hardfought six-wicket victory in the third and finalcricket Test to clinch the three-match series 1-0and a
Samiul Hasan12-Dec-2000Home team’s 34-match unbeaten record shattered:Karachi, Dec 11: Pakistan plunged to depths ofdespair under darkness when England earned a hardfought six-wicket victory in the third and finalcricket Test to clinch the three-match series 1-0and a cash award of $10,000.Under extremely poor light with street lamps on,England achieved the victory target of 176 withsix wickets and 15 balls of the mandatory oversremaining.Earlier, Pakistan resuming on the final morning at71 for three were bundled out for 158 with thelast six wickets falling for a mere 30 runs.Pakistan captain Moin Khan made several valientattempts to appeal against poor light and in theprocess received an official warning by WestIndian Steve Bucknor as the match finished at5.55pm and before an empty stadium as the handfulof spectators had left the venue for Iftar (timefor breaking fast).Moin argued with the Jamaician, Buknor, that thefielders were unable to pick the ball due to poorvisibility though the batsmen continued to throwthe bat around and much to their luck, alwaysconnected them properly.The victory ended Pakistan’s 34-match unbeatenrecord at the National Stadium and five-serieswinning sequence against the Englishmen. For theproud Nasser Hussain’s men, it was their firstseries triumph over Pakistan in Pakistan since1961 when Ted Dexter’s party defeated ImtiazAhmad’s men 1-0.It was also Pakistan’s fourth defeat in a trot onhome surface after they lost to Australia andZimbabwe in 1998 and then to Sri Lanka earlierthis year in February-March.The man who made the difference in the end was 32-year-old Graham Thorpe who played the innings ofhis life while scoring a match-winning unbeaten 64from 97 balls with the aid of four boundaries.Together with Worcestershire’s Graeme Hick, Thorpefeature in a 91-run fourth wicket partnership in102 minutes after Saqlain Mushtaq had struckthrice in quick succession to leave Englandreeling at 65 for three in 17 overs.Hick, whose previous best in the series was 18,scored a rapid 65-ball 40 before he was castled byWaqar Younis. Nevertheless, the batsman might havejust managed to save his sinking career andconvince the selectors to retain him for theseries against Sri Lanka for which the Englandteam arrives there in February next year.The two batsmen worked the ball in gaps and keptthe scoreboard ticking with ones and twos. Therewas no urgency in their batting as they chalkedout their strategy to perfection and stuck to it.For a second it looked England had lost their waywhen they could score only 40 from 15 oversbetween overs 15 and 30 before accelerating thescoring rate.It was also an excellent bit of captaincy byNasser Hussain when he promoted an out-of-formHick ahead of him. It was a gamble not manycaptains would have played. But for the confidencethe captain has in the abilities of the Zimbabweborn batsman, it worked.There can’t be any two opinions that England werea much better team than Pakistan who did nothingbut tried to play game of words by making bigclaims. The tourists were composed, united,ambitious and determined and continued the goodwork they had started back home five months agowhile defeating the West Indies 3-1 for the firsttime in 31 years.The biggest strength of the Englishmen was theirconviction that they could do the impossible thistime. On alien conditions and playing against amuch talented opposition, the tourists played theentire series without shuffling their team whilePakistan made mind-boggling and ill-plannedchanges after changes in persuit of finding awinning combination.It can’t be more embarrassing and humiliating forthe Pakistanis to suffer defeat when they preparedwickets supportive for the spinners in an effortto exploit England’s vulerability. In the end, itwas Pakistan that was left needing to carry outsoul-searching and probably an overhauling becausesome of the players just don’t deserve to be inthis trade.It is also a moment of concern and requiresindepth ananlysis as to why the Pakistan team islion aboard and lamb at home.There can’t be more disappointing defeat to a teamso promising and highly-rated as Pakistan to losea Test after scoring 292 for three at stumps onthe first day and then accumulating 405 in thefirst innings.Without taking any credit from England in thisTest, Pakistan’s batting proved disgusting, theirbowling pathetic, fielding horrendous and MoinKhan’s captaincy and wicketkeeping far fromsatisfactory. Saqlain Mushtaq picked up threewickets but conceded 64 runs from 17 overs.Moin Khan showed that he needed a lot ofexperience before he can command his men in thefield when he made senseless bowling changes. Heunder-bowled Danish Kaneria, the specialist wristspinner, over-bowled Shahid Afridi and brought inWaqar Younis too late in the day to scare theEngland batsmen under rapidly fading light.While fingers can be rightly pointed at MoinKhan’s inability to handle pressure situations,there is no explanation for a disappointingbatting display in daylight. Yousuf Youhana, onwhom Pakistan’s hopes rested, was out hookingshortly before lunch and was soon joined thedressing room by Salim Elahi (37), Abdur Razzaq(1) and Moin Khan (14).Nevertheless, Youhana finished with 343 runs fromfour innings to earn the Man-of-the-Series.Michael Atherton, who played a masterly innings of125 during his 579 minutes of vigil in the firstinnings, was adjudged Man-of-the-Match.Ashley Giles, on his maiden tour with the Englandteam, finished with three for 38 from 37 overs tofinish the series with 17 wickets and betteringNick Cook’s record of 14 wickets in Pakistan.Darren Gough bowled his heart out to end up withthree for 30.It was an extraordinary conclusion to the seriesbeing played after 13 years. While the Englandteam will fly out on Tuesday with their headshigh, Pakistan cricket managers will be left doinga lot of home work and planning for the team’snext assignment which is against New Zealand inNew Zealand in February.