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Pakistan emphatically ended Australia’s hopes of regaining the number one Test ranking with a 221-run win in the first Test in Dubai yesterday.
Australia entered the two-match series needing to win both games to displace South Africa at the top, but will instead head to Abu Dhabi later this week hoping to avoid a first series loss to Pakistan since 1994.
Pakistan had won just two Tests against Australia in the intervening period — at one point losing 13 in a row — and while they were without mystery spinner Saeed Ajmal following his ban for an illegal bowling action their slow men led the way to a memorable success.
Left-armer spinner Zulfiqar Babar fittingly completed the job, and his first five-wicket Test haul at the age of 35, when Peter Siddle squeezed a bat-pad catch to Azhar Ali.
Zulfiqar and debutant leg-spinner Yasir Shah claimed 14 wickets between them in the match to leave Australia in a spin ahead of the second Test.
Pakistan led by 189 after Australia’s first innings, and declared an incredible 286-2 in their second — posting a target that the Baggy Greens fell well short of at 216 all out.
