Credit goes to Misbah for England whitewash: Miandad

Karachi: Pakistan batting great Javed Miandad on Tuesday credited Misbah-ul-Haq`s sensible leadership for the team`s historic 3-0 Test series whitewash of England.

"If you ask me, one main factor that gave us a historic sweep of the series I would say it was the captaincy of Misbah. He is a very mature leader and led the side coolly and sensibly. You can see the team is playing like a unit under him," Miandad said. Pakistan became the first team in a 100 years to be bowled out for just 99 runs in the first innings and yet stage a comeback to win the third test. Miandad pointed out that the fightback by the team after showed how well gelled the team was. "I am not surprised that we beat England. I was expecting that because the conditions favoured us. But I am pleasantly happy at the way all the players clicked at just the right time at the right occasions throughout the series," he added. The veteran of 124 Tests noted that in the third test after being bowled out for 99 runs the bowlers first brought Pakistan back into the match and then the batsmen applied themselves in the second innings with the senior players coming good at the right time. "The spinners were outstanding throughout the series. Conditions were helpful to them but yet it takes a lot of skill and discipline to exploit even favourable conditions and Saeed and Rehman were outstanding in this sense. England till the end of the series had no answer to them." Miandad, who is presently director cricket in the Pakistan Board, said the pitches in the UAE were not easy for batting. "The general impression is that they were batting wickets I don`t think so. They were slow, had variable pace and bounce and there was help for the bowlers with skills. It took lot of application and patience to get runs in these conditions." Miandad said that Pakistan team had made the nation proud with their comprehensive sweep of the series but they still needed to do a lot of work on their fielding. "Fielding is a very important part of any form of the game and our players need to sharpen up in this department. The former Pakistan coach also said he was not surprised by England`s capitulation despite their number one test ranking. "Being number one does not mean you are unbeatable or invincible. It does not mean you can win all the time. The conditions in the UAE were in favour of Pakistan and they did well to exploit them," he said. PTI