Three men and a dromedary plus one real hornswoggler

Soaring success: Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal
10 April 2012

A lone horn was honking in Dubai this morning - not on the perpetually gridlocked roads of the Emirati metropolis - but in the all-but empty DSC Cricket Stadium, where a grand total of three men and a dromedary turned up to watch England splutter in the sunshine during their first Test of 2012.

The ground echoed like an early-morning leisure centre swimming pool - an appropriate tumbleweed soundtrack to an unusually weak England batting performance against some quietly devilish spin bowling by Saeed Ajmal.

The computer-generated pictures on the much-used DRS system showed a dense, pixellated crowd behind the batsman. It was rather optimistic.

This is the tenth 'home' Test match that Pakistan have played in the UAE since they first relocated to the Arabian peninsula in 2002.

The nine Tests before this have yielded three wins, four draws and two losses. Both defeats were to Australia at Sharjah a decade ago, at a time when virtually everyone lost to Australia, no matter where they played them.

Despite pugnacious batting in retreat by Matt Prior and Graeme Swann, which helped England to avoid posting the lowest-ever international score in the DSC's short history (131 in an ODI by Sri Lanka last November) Pakistan gave no indication that the losses column of their ledger would be increasing by the end of this Test.

For that, they can give great thanks to Ajmal. The off-spinner did nothing especially flashy in the 16 overs he bowled before tea but he bagged five wickets for 40 runs at an economy of 2.50. Only the ball which confused Ian Bell, leading to Adnan Akmal catching him for a duck, was a real hornswoggler.

For the most part Ajmal stuck to the business of rotating his three deliveries - the regular off-spinner, the doosra turning the other way, and the teesra - the off-spinner's version of a slider, which shapes as if to turn but holds its line and cramps the batsman in his crease.

He did his job simply and left it for the English batsmen to pick 'em. With the exception of Swann and Prior, they failed.

Given the disgraceful events that occurred in the summer 2010 Tests between England and Pakistan, and the enduring rancour between the teams, it was a pleasant thing to see the 34-year old Ajmal rewarded for playing diligent, unspectacular cricket.

The way that he ran through the English top order could not have contrasted more with the way an 18-year old Mohammad Amir troubled the same clutch of players 18 months ago. There were no fireworks; but there were no obvious signs of egregious and criminal cheating, either.

Given everything that has happened since the infamous Lord's Test of 2010, all the world really wants to see is a Pakistan team going about their business as Ajmal appeared to this morning: quietly and honestly.

There is an argument to say that the reverberant silence that fills the DSC Stadium is taking the commitment to quiet a little too far. But for the moment it won't worry Pakistan, or the rest of a relieved cricketing world.

Follow me on Twitter @dgjones

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