Sajid Khan and Noman Ali are as different as chalk and cheese but they gelled perfectly as they tore through England’s batting to give Pakistan a long-awaited Test win.
The spin pair took all 20 wickets on a worn, turning, Multan track for a 152-run win to set up a third Test winner-takes-all showdown at Rawalpindi starting on Thursday.
Left-armer Noman, 38, is the senior partner of a pair who have played together in eight Tests.
“We bowled with a lot of confidence and his energy is always very high,” Noman told AFP about his partner, off-spinner Sajid.
“Our plan was to keep it simple. We knew the England batsman would attack, so we were not distracted and kept it simple,” he added. “This feat will go a long way in establishing our pairing. To get 20 wickets between us is an honour and it happens very rarely.”
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The win is Pakistan’s first at home since it beat South Africa in Rawalpindi three years and eight months ago.
Noman took a career best 8-46 as England was 144 all out chasing 297 to win.
But it was Sajid who set the platform with 7-111 in the first innings to give Pakistan a crucial 75-run lead.
Noman finished with match figures of 11-147 and Sajid 9-204.
They became the seventh pair of bowlers to take all 20 wickets in a Test, and the first since Australia’s Dennis Lillee and Bob Massie against England in 1972.
Sajid cuts a dashing figure on the field, frequently twiddling his immaculately groomed moustache and celebrating a wicket with an exuberant thigh slap that has become his signature.
“I followed my father in keeping a moustache,” Sajid told AFP of his late father, who had served in the military. “(Former Australia batsman) David Warner once said he was frightened of my moustache,” he added.
Former Pakistan left-arm spinner Iqbal Qasim believes that Noman and Sajid complement each other perfectly.
“Spin gives us the winning formula which we were not using,” said Qasim who took 171 wickets in 50 Tests for Pakistan. “Noman and Sajid have matured with experience and can continue to give home wins like this.”
It is too early to compare the pair to India’s spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who jointly have over 800 wickets.
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Thirty-seven years ago, Qasim partnered Tauseef Ahmed for 18 wickets as Pakistan won in Bangalore for a first series win over arch-rivals India.
Off-spinner Ahmed, who took 93 wickets for Pakistan, said the pair had “bowled extraordinarily” well in the win over England, after Pakistan’s new selection committee decided to pick only one seam bowler.
“The previous set-up did not have belief in spinners and that’s why we were not using our home advantage,” said Ahmed
The series finale starts in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
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