The series victory against England is a momentous triumph, earned through relentless grind and injected with magical spin bowling © AFP

The Abu Dhabi pitch was easing up, the heavy roller would flatten it further. Team Misbah had batted too Misbah-ly, going at a crawl when a thrash or two would have eased nerves. England bat deep and 145 was a trifling target for the world’s No. 1 Test team, which boasts some of the planet’s leading batsmen. Think again. Misbah-ul-Haq’s Pakistan has a layer of ice smothering the fire in its veins, unlike any Pakistan team that has blown hot and cold before it. Forget rankings, Pakistan cricket and its supporters are feeling on top of the world.

For a cricket nation exiled from its home, a home ravaged by conflict and political instability, a team decimated by controversy and skulduggery, this series victory is a momentous triumph, earned through relentless grind and magical spin bowling. Pakistan’s spinners have been irresistible in this series; running through England’s batting order in three innings out of four is an outstanding achievement, one that not many could have predicted.

Today belonged to Abdur Rehman—he had just reward for many days of unwavering support of his spin partner, the poker-faced wizard Saeed Ajmal. Rehman doesn’t always extract turn, but he did here—at speed. England’s batsmen were trapped on the crease, bamboozled and beaten. Meanwhile Ajmal, almost silently, became the fastest Pakistan bowler to a hundred Test wickets. Hailing from the nation of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, and Waqar Younis, Ajmal’s record is as stunning as Pakistan’s success.

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As Saeed Ajmal leapt with joy, so did the rest of Pakistan © AFP

Never in the field of cricket conflict have so many enjoyed a match played before so few. Pakistan's thumping victory in Dubai was accompanied by shrill cries of glory that echoed around a near-empty stadium, but it was also greeted with a torrent of exultant tweets and status updates that rang out around the world.

This was the examination of Pakistan's progress that was anxiously awaited, a bout with the world's No.1 Test team, a tussle that might expose the illusion of Pakistan's cricketing resurrection. Instead, Misbah-ul-Haq's team moved their supporters a few steps closer to heavenly rapture.

England were disappointing, a batting performance unworthy of their status. But Pakistan have also made Sri Lanka look miserable here, and perhaps there is more substance to this revival than could have been hoped for? With Saeed Ajmal in such mesmeric form and Misbah's leadership more impresive by the day, Pakistan are capable of turning their Middle East abode into as much of a fortress as Karachi once was. On this evidence, Pakistan can be a power again in Test cricket and the world game will be better for it.

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The cricket in this series should be fascinating enough before the inevitable controversies interfere © AFP

When Pakistan play England, to paraphrase Coldplay, every series is a watershed. Confrontations are frequent, disagreements a ritual. Fifty years of competition have brought us a rivalry infused with socio-political significance. When the malodour of colonial rule began to evaporate, radicals nearer to home and neo-conservatives abroad blew another ill wind through the senses of these cricketing combatants. Both parties have periodically made pledges of mutual respect and bonhomie but the heat of battle tends to create heat, not light.

Certain Pakistan cricketers brought disgrace to English shores in 2010, and that memory will be hard to shake as this series unravels. England arrive in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan’s exile home, with a stain on their domestic game courtesy of the recent spot-fixing verdict against Mervyn Westfield. As unfortunate as the Westfield case is, it serves to remind players and commentators that corruption in cricket is not a uniquely Pakistani problem, ironically helping to tone down the tension of this series.

Indeed, a series that might have been previewed with dread has become a stimulus for enthusiasm. England are undisputed world champions, Pakistan a surprisingly close second in Test success in the last 12 months. In that period, England scored at the fastest run rate of all teams, while Pakistan bettered only Zimbabwe; forget Imran versus Botham and Wasim versus Atherton, welcome tortoise versus hare.

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Pakistan have played to their strengths (their bowling attack) and within their limitations (the pace of their batting) © AFP

Dissatisfied in defeat, no more content in victory, sports fans can be a miserable bunch. Shakib Al Hasan, a Bangladeshi no less, sits atop the world Test rankings for allrounders but fans and pundits call for his country to be demoted from the top tier of international cricket. Undefeated in a Test series in 2011, Pakistan are condemned for a slow, unadventurous version of cricket that renders any success hollow.

Pakistan’s predicament is happier than Bangladesh’s, discussing the manner of victory always is. But Pakistan were only a heartbeat away from the plight of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, even West Indies, the strugglers in the swampy lowlands of international cricket. Only a heartbeat away, that is, until an unfamiliar attritional methodology took hold. Pakistan cricket needed a way out of the quagmire, by any means necessary, and the players found it.

The rescue mission to help today’s weaker cricket nations swim belongs to the ICC—and it must be a mission of support and inclusion, not hectoring and threats of expulsion. A deeper challenge faces international cricket, a challenge to become a truly global sport with many participating nations, instead of a cartel bossed over by the superficial agendas of the cricket world’s most powerful nations.

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