DUBAI: Pakistan defeated number one ranked England by ten wickets
within three days to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match Test series here
at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Pakistani
opener Mohammad Hafeez alone scored the 15 runs in 3.4 overs to hand
England their first defeat in 10 Tests, since losing to Australia at
Perth in the 2010 Ashes. Earlier, paceman Umar Gul took four for 63 to
help Pakistan bowl out England for 160.
The 27-year-old fast
bowler dismissed Andrew Strauss (six) before lunch and then accounted
for Alastair Cook (five) and Kevin Pietersen (nought) in his hostile
first spell.
Gul was ably supported by spinners Abdul Rehman
(3-37) and Saeed Ajmal (3-42), his second 10-wicket haul in Tests.
England’s batsmen, wrecked by Ajmal’s career-best 7-55 in their first
innings of 192, were again clueless against the spin and played some
rash shots as they sought to score runs on the pace of Gul.
Jonathan
Trott top-scored with 49, but fell to an irresponsible shot, trying to
force a short delivery from Gul and being caught by wicket-keeper Adnan
Akmal, who finished the match with seven catches.
Trott, who
passed the boundary of 2,000 runs when he reached 18 in his 24th Test,
hit six boundaries during his 111-ball knock but became Gul’s 150th
wicket in his 41st Test. England had another disastrous start as Strauss
was adjudged caught behind, pushing Gul to the leg side and seeing the
ensuing edge well taken by the wicket-keeper.
Soon after the
lunch break, Gul produced a sharp rising delivery that caught Cook in
two minds as the left-hander gloved it to Adnan, who had no trouble in
gathering it. Kevin Pietersen made it 25-3 when he hooked a Gul bouncer
straight into the hands of deep square-leg fielder Abdul Rehman, leaving
England in more trouble at 25-3.
Ajmal then got in on the act
when he trapped Ian Bell plumb in front of the wicket for four. Rehman
ended a fifth-wicket partnership of 39 by dismissing Eoin Morgan (14)
caught behind, while Ajmal trapped Matt Prior to leave England at 87-7.
Stuart Broad (17) and Graeme Swann (39) delayed the inevitable
by putting on 48 for the eighth wicket before Rehman dismissed Broad and
Chris Tremlett off successive balls. Ajmal took the last wicket by
getting Swann caught.
The second Test starts in Abu Dhabi from January 25, while the third will again be played here on February 3-7. Online
