ABU DHABI - Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul Haq said Monday it was a great satisfaction for him to beat a top Test side in such a way in which every player contributed.
Misbah said credit went to every player in the team who gave consistent performances in both the Tests and did not relax or became complacent and cash in on to every chance they got to help the team with their exceptional performances.
He said it was difficult for him to differentiate and rate the series victories over England and Australia as both the victories were memorable for him. “It’s really tough to rank both the series, but considering the fact that we had far better bowling combination for England and this time despite having an inexperienced bowling line up, nobody could have thought we can turned around and beat Australia so this you can understand is a big achievement,” said Misbah.
Misbah credited the turnaround, after losing the preceding one-day series against Australia 3-0, to team effort. “I think we got the belief to win that’s why we delivered and everyone performed. The way we played as a batting unit you could say there was belief and this could be the reason we performed the way we did,” he said.
Misbah said it had looked a difficult proposition without their frontline bowlers. “Obviously it looked difficult without Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Riaz and Junaid but everybody performed well and it was remarkable.” Misbah, however, praised his inexperienced bowling attack to play a big role in Pakistan victory.
“I told before the series that these guys (Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah) are very experienced in the domestic cricket and were even performing at non-supporting pitches. So I was confident that they could certainly deliver in supporting conditions. Imran Khan was also exceptional with the ball and Rahat Ali though was a little lethargic but bowled important spells for us and gave us important wickets.”
Replying to a query regarding promotion in Test ranking, Misbah said: “It’s really good to be up there in ranking and that could really give you great confidence and I think good thing about that we are going to play another series against New Zealand... if we can really continue playing like this, it will further help us in our campaign in the World Cup,” he said.
About his captaincy record, Misbah said: “You didn’t play for the records and when you play positively and good cricket, you achieve the records too which give you satisfaction and happiness and a memory to cherish in the rest of your life.”
Misbah said winning and performing well in any format of the game help a player to become more focused and put positive effects on your game across the all formats. He was confident that the victory had given them a momentum and they would take this momentum into the upcoming series as well as World Cup.
About his form, Misbah said during Sri Lanka series and ODIs, he also did not have any form issue but unluckily was unable to get runs. He said his teammates and management had helped him a lot mentally and psychologically that had eased off pressure on him and he was again among the scores.
Misbah also was impressed by the focus and determination of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq in the field and said they had brought a lot of energy in the team. “Asad took a speedy catch at leg slip which was a top class catch and both these players always remain ready and greedy to catch everything that comes in their way.” Pakistan next play New Zealand in a three-match series, with the first Test starting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Clarke says No excuse for unacceptable performance: Australian captain Michael Clarke said there were no excuses for such a performance in the Two Test match series against Pakistan and it was not acceptable. He said Australia hadn’t learnt the lessons of their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of home team India in 2013.
Clarke team’s nightmarish tour of UAE is over after Pakistan completed a 2-0 series sweep with a 356-run victory in the second Test on Monday. It seems little has changed in this respect under new coach Darren Lehmann, who guided Australia to an Ashes whitewash over England last summer and a series win in South Africa in March.
“We have got to talk about what’s just happened,” Clarke said. “We were hopeful that we learnt some lessons from out trip to India but it doesn’t look that way. Your goal has to be to try and become better. I say that regularly but our performances here weren’t any better than they were in India. It’s a fair indication of where we sit as a team. We’re a lot more comfortable playing in our own back yard and we need to continue to work hard to have success away from home. There’s no doubt the players will be happy to go home.”
“I am probably most angry with myself, most disappointed with my personal performance,” Clarke said. “I have always prided myself on leading by example and in the series that we have lost since I have been captain I have been able at least to stand up and lead from the front where in this series I haven’t done that.”
Clarke admitted Australia had been totally outplayed. “I have been hitting a lot of balls. I haven’t played as much cricket as I would have liked,” said Clarke, who skipped last month’s one-day series in the UAE against Pakistan because of a hamstring injury.
“I don’t have any excuse for underperforming and I will be judged like any other player that’s underperformed. That’s what burns me the most at this time. There’s no doubt I am disappointed we lost the series two-nil. But when you are captain you take things personally and when you don’t perform that makes it even harder.”
“There’s no doubt the batting has been extremely poor this series and that’s led by myself. My batting is unacceptable as captain. That hasn’t helped our bowlers one bit. I think we dropped 11 catches this series. That hasn’t helped the bowlers. Bat, ball and in the field we’ve been outplayed by a really good Pakistan team,” Clarke said.
Clarke denied not being able to pick left-armer Zulfiqar’s variations was the cause of Australia’s problems. “I don’t think it was necessarily about not picking him,” Clarke said. “He executed very well over long periods of time on a wicket that had natural variation. Some balls spun, some balls didn’t spin.”