Pakistan v England: Andrew Strauss's team facing crisis of credibility after batting fails again in hefty first Test defeat

Desert storms do not come any more sudden or spectacular than this after England lost the first Test by 10 wickets inside three days.

By Derek Pringle, Dubai7:46PM GMT 19 Jan 2012

andrew strauss

Undone by Pakistan’s mystery spinner in the first innings, Andrew Strauss’s side forgot to heed the other bowlers and were dismissed cheaply for the second time in the match.

It was an unexpected shellacking by a Pakistan team without a home and rebuilding their reputation match by match. England head the Test table but with two more series in Asia this year they face a crisis to their credibility unless their batting, which failed miserably for a second time in the match, can find quick solutions to making proper runs in these conditions.

Chief among them will be to find a way to pick Saeed Ajmal, whose teasing mix of doosras and off-breaks brought him match figures of 10 for 97.

Ajmal is a tricky opponent but his skills are not the only cutting tool Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has at his disposal. England’s fixations on Ajmal allowed Umar Gul and Abdur Rehman to join the feeding frenzy with four and three wickets respectively.

As much as England were poor, Pakistan were excellent, with scarcely a duff move from the players or their captain. In the wake of the recent spot-fixing trial which resulted in three former Pakistan Test players being jailed for corruption, this result will be seen as redemption for both them and Test cricket, which needs as many teams as it can muster to challenge for the top prize.

The large margin of defeat meant this was England’s worst since the innings loss against South Africa at the Wanderers two years ago. It was probably the last time they faced a consistently good bowling attack too and certainly the last time Andy Flower, the team director, complained to the match referee about a decision by the television umpire, something he did again on Thursday after Andrew Strauss was first out after allegedly tickling a catch down the leg side.

Good teams like England – and they will be trying to convince themselves this was an aberration – get into good habits, one being to follow defeat like this with a win. They have managed this after each of their four previous losses, something, given the general excellence of the bowlers here, they could do again in next week’s second Test in Abu Dhabi, providing the batsmen get enough runs.

This match was lost because of their collective failure, twice, and not because Strauss batted first or did not pick Monty Panesar. England’s bowlers did well, and unless the next pitch suggests otherwise, there is no need to change them.

Well behind after two days, England began well on Thursday with Gul’s prompt dismissal bringing them hope of keeping Pakistan’s lead below 110. But a brave and feisty innings of 61 from Adnan Akmal, the wicketkeeper, meant Pakistan’s first innings lead climbed to 146, and that was always going to require more than 150 overs of batting to nullify completely, something Gul immediately compromised when he had Strauss caught behind in the fifth over of England’s second innings.

Taken by Akmal down the leg side, Strauss did not refer Billy Bowden’s out decision straightaway. When he did, there was scant visual evidence from either Hotspot or the slow-motion replays. But the television umpire, in this case Steve Davis, had audio from the stump microphone and that apparently suggested contact had been made.

The confusion, and why Flower saw fit to seek further clarification from Javagal Srinath, the match referee, is because the International Cricket Council appears to have shifted the protocol of the system to protect its umpires. Whereas the Decision Review System was previously used to achieve the right decision, irrespective of the on-field umpire’s call, now it only overturns it if there is conclusive evidence that the original ruling was wrong.

It does so even when there is no conclusive evidence that it was right, either, as in the case of Strauss and England’s dismissal of Ajmal, who did not appear to make contact with the ball after being given out off Graeme Swann to a catch off glove and pad. If it is to be used, technology, in whatever guise, should be used to give justice to the players, not umpires.

Strauss’s departure precipitated a slew of meek dismissals. The next was Alastair Cook, another caught down the leg side off Gul, this time after flapping at a short ball too close to him to hook. It was an ungainly end only trumped when Kevin Pietersen hooked Gul to Abdur Rehman at deep backward square, a shot that sprung the trap set for him with all the dumb naivety of a Dodo befriending a hungry sailor in the days before pot noodles.

Arriving on a king pair, Ian Bell did not hold Pakistan up for long, falling lbw again to Ajmal, and again to a doosra delivered from wide on the crease. Only Jonathan Trott, with 47, and a sprightly 39 by Swann later on, inconvenienced Pakistan on their victory stroll which came after Mohammad Hafeez struck the 15 runs required in their second innings.

As Trott showed on Thursday, and Matt Prior on the first day, there were no unexpected gremlins in the pitch, just those that come with being the No 1-ranked Test side in the world.

That burden was also felt by the 2005 Ashes-winning side and they quickly fell to earth, a trajectory Strauss’s team could soon follow unless the batsmen can free up the inhibitions that seem to afflict them east of Mecca.

Source: telegraph UK