Before this test match started Younis Khan (Vice Captain of Pakistan) spoke of an anger within the team, an anger for having let themselves and their supporters down by the awful display of batting they put up against a two pronged England attack; Harmison with balls to the jugular and Monty Panesar with delightful flight, spin and control at Old Trafford. They fell like a house of cards on that pitch and had no answers to the English energy. Playing one down in the series, Pakistan had some hope of coming back, but as usual things went against that hope.



Fans here in Karachi, most of them gathered at their homes having taken a day off from work, were cursing in every language at a Mr Darryl Hair, of the ‘Muralitharan no-balling’ fame as decision after decision went against the Pakistan team. In both innings a total of 7 decisions could be classified as just absurd, 6 against Pakistan, one against England. Clearly the standard of umpiring was far below International standards, in fact it was in poor taste, but the fact of the matter is that this happens in matches. At the start, Pakistan did show a great deal of fight after England’s mammoth total of 515, which was thanks to Ian Bell’s century and Kevin Pietersen’s fighting 135. The heroes for Pakistan were Muhammad Yousuf with 192 and Younis Khan with 173. They also had to battle with the umpires again to bowl England out in their second innings. This left England with a lead of 323 runs for Pakistan to get on the last day, at a paltry 3.5 runs an over. Difficult but not out of reach.



Of course if Nostradamus had predicted a win for Pakistan, he would have died in humiliation as player after player stepped out of the Pakistan dressing room in abject surrender to the inevitable fate. With bewildered looks on their faces, they walked back shaking their heads. They shuffled, they cursed and they stumbled around the pitch, poking here and there at an odd ball. It looked like they already knew what was going to happen as soon as the openers had departed; it was déjà vu again, Old Trafford style. Once again, the abject batting was accompanied by the usual spate of daft run outs. The England team was excellent in the field - very sharp, very alert as Panesar and surprisingly Sajid Mahmood ripped out the heart of the Pakistan batting line up one by one. Panesar finished with figures of 3 for 39 a total of six wickets in this test, Sajid Mahmood with 4-22 also with 6 in this test for an England win, just in time with the afternoon.



As far as England are concerned they did deserve this victory and the series, because if they have not won a series against Pakistan at home since 1982, it was for a reason. Until now they just did not have the heart to do it, but today it was a different picture altogether. With Vaughan, their Captain out, with Flintoff their stand in captain and superstar out, with no Simon Jones or an in form Hoggard they have still shown their critics that they are made of true steel indeed. Displaying resilience and an energy last seen in the Ashes when they defeated Australia to the shock of the world.



Pakistan however, have played quite poorly when plagued with the same injury problems as their opposition, okay so their fearsome pace trio of Shoaib, Asif and Rana are not playing, and neither is Shoaib Malik who does give them some depth in batting, but to fold like this is no excuse at all. It is the batting overall which has let them down not the bowling. They have serious problems when it comes to their opening pair, and except for the 3 legends in the middle it has basically all gone to pot. Pakistan really needs to try new faces. Maybe they can be brave about it and succeed, all they have to do is look at England for inspiration whose reserves appear to possess a kick and a half! For now though it is going to be a long and lonely road for Inzamam till the World Cup as the fickle pundits here are already baying for blood having lost a test series to the English after almost 24 years.

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