Former spin greats heap praises on Saeed, Rehman

"The most heartening aspect of this great triumph was the bowling of Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman." -Photo by Reuters

KARACHI: Former spin greats Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed while paying glowing tribute to Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman on Sunday said that it was a collective team effort that earned Pakistan victory over England in the second Test against England in Abu Dhabi.

Iqbal, the former slow left-armer who captured 171 wickets in a 50-Test career from 1976 to 1988, said the series win against the top-ranked England will turnaround Pakistan cricket and usher the beginning of a new era.

“Obviously one can’t praise the Pakistan team enough after what it did to England the other day. The credit goes to the entire team, but the most heartening aspect of this great triumph was the bowling of Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman,” Iqbal told Dawn.

“After a very long time, the spinners have made a major impact for Pakistan by winning the series. I thought both Saeed and Rehman were simply outstanding and tormented the English batsmen throughout the Test in Abu Dhabi.”

Tauseef, an off-spinner who played 34 Tests and took 93 wickets between 1980 and 1993, said the pre-series hype created by Saeed’s announcement of a teesra delivery played on the minds of the Englishmen and consequently disturbed them which ultimately cost them the series.

“I think it was a master stroke by Saeed Ajmal’s claims [of introducing a new type of delivery] and it clearly caused panic in the opposition camp. The hype led to confusion and when you are in that state of mind you will only invite problems,” the 53-year-old Tauseef observed while speaking to Dawn.

“England’s preparations were in disarray from the onset. Moreover, Pakistan cashed in on their shortcomings against good spin bowling.

“The way Saeed and Rehman exploited the situation was simply too much for England because historically they generally struggle on the types of pitches they play on in the subcontinent. And both Dubai and Abu Dhabi were not different as far as the pitches were concerned,” he added.

When asked to compare Pakistan’s latest win to the one against India in Bangalore in the series-deciding final of the 1987 series, both Iqbal and Tauseef, who claimed nine wickets apiece in the 16-run success, noted that the circumstances were totally different.

“You can’t really draw a comparison. The Bangalore track was like a minefield from the start since the ball spun and behaved abnormally during the entire game. Batting on that sort of pitch was extremely difficult,” Iqbal recalled.

“On top of that we were up against biased umpiring in front of hostile Indian crowd. So one can imagine what we went through then since there was such stuff like neutral umpires and DRS in those days.”

Tauseef backed Iqbal’s assessment and said that this England side doesn’t have the batsmen to match those India had in the 1987 series.

“The Indians were far more experienced and were masters of spin bowling. The likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath, Mohammad Azharuddin etc were far more superior batsmen than the current England lot. They had the technique and temperament to combat the spinners. England sadly lacked these qualities as we have all seen so far,” Tauseef said.

“However, by saying this I don’t mean to belittle the achievements of this Pakistan team which has come of age after all the problems and controversies it faced not long ago. Under Misbah-ul-Haq, the boys are playing like a unit and enjoying each other’s success,” he concluded.