Rehman credits hard work for series victory over England

DUBAI: Pakistan’s left-arm off-spinner Abdur Rehman rubbished the impression on Tuesday that his team’s victory over England was a fluke or a big surprise saying the Men in Green defeated the world’s best Test side due to sheer hard work.

Abdur Rehman was instrumental in Pakistan’s 72-run victory in the Abu Dhabi Test which gave Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series. Pakistan had won the opening Test match in Dubai by 10 wickets after right-arm orthodox off-spinner Saeed Ajmal mesmerized English batsmen with his Doosra.

The third Test starts from February 3, 2012 at Dubai where Pakistan would be looking to complete the clean-sweep against the top Test team in the ICC Test Championship table.

Abdur Rehman took six wickets for just 25 runs in the second innings, his best figures in Test career, which skittled England to their lowest-ever Test total against Pakistan, 72 runs.

Some cricketing pundits have been calling Pakistan’s victory in the Test series as a fluke but Abdur Rehman was not ready to accept the opinion as he told Emirates media, “No, it’s not surprising. We have won because we have worked really hard before the series and in the two Test matches”.

Pakistan’s spinners pair of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman have collectively taken 29 wickets in the first two Test matches and English batsmen have felt the heat in the Emirates grounds where they failed to play the spinning red cherry consistently. Saeed Ajmal is the top wicket-taker in the series with 17 wickets to his name while Abdur Rehman has taken 12 wickets so far.

English batsmen’s inability to handle spin bowling did surprise Pakistani players and Abdur Rehman admitted it saying, “We had no idea that it would finish in three or four days, but since the team did well and the pitches helped us so we won”.

Talking about his bowling partner, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman said, “We have nothing like that he will get wicket and I will be left out, we support each other so much that there comes nothing in our heart, we always think that anyone gets wickets it should be helpful for the team”.

Both the Pakistani off-spinners have stormed into the top ten in the Reliance ICC Rankings for Test Bowlers as Saeed Ajmal is at second place while Abdur Rehman has surged to ninth position for the first time in his career. This is the first time in the last 23 years that two Pakistani spinners are among the top ten bowlers in the Test cricket.

Abdur Rehman, who has taken 68 wickets from 14 Test matches, had the license to feel proud of his performance and its outcome. He said of his rankings, “It’s good, a very good feeling and now I am in top ten and it is after a long time that two Pakistani spinners have come in the rankings, so I am happy that I am among those bowlers who are world’s best”.

Abdur Rehman did tell the reporters why Pakistan have been so successful against England in the United Arab Emirates. He attributed the success to a marvelous game plan and hard work. Abdur Rehman stated, “What we are trying is to give them a tough time, contain them so that they make mistakes. That was the game plan of the captain and the coach, so they made mistakes after getting fed up”.