da imperador bet： Michael Vaughan put a brave face on the most humiliating defeat of hisreign as England captain, admitting that Pakistan had played the bettercricket throughout the three-Test series
Andrew Miller at Lahore03-Dec-2005
Vaughan: ‘In every spell Shoaib bowled a couple of beautiful slower balls’ © AFP
Michael Vaughan put a brave face on the most humiliating defeat of hisreign as England captain, admitting that Pakistan had played the bettercricket throughout the three-Test series.Vaughan, who watched helplessly from the dressing-room as England shippedtheir last eight wickets in 69 balls to lose by an innings and 100 runs,singled Shoaib Akhtar out for particular praise.”I thought he was a big difference between the two teams,” said Vaughan,after Shoaib had ripped through England’s tail to cap a fine allroundseries with figures of 5 for 71, and 8 for 116 in the match. He finishedthe series as the leading wicket-taker with 17.”We just couldn’t apply ourselves in the conditions,” added Vaughan.”Shoaib bowled a mystery of slow balls, yorkers and bouncers, and hebowled good spells throughout the whole series. He’s been a massive threatand has got out our key batsmen at crucial times.”Shoaib entered the series under something of a fitness cloud, and Vaughanhinted that his perpetual menace had caught England unawares. “It’s beena surprise that he sustained the consistency,” he said. “His disciplineand line has been excellent, and his variations have been very very good.In every spell he bowled a couple of beautiful slower balls.”I think every time he got the ball in his hands he proved a real threatto our batsmen and put us in lot of pressure,” added Vaughan. “We giftedthem a few too many wickets in the first innings, and after the last dayat Multan, we were never really in a position to put Pakistan underpressure.”England’s final-day rearguard had begun in impressive fashion, as PaulCollingwood and Ian Bell batted throughout the morning session to extendtheir third-wicket stand to 175. But Collingwood fell in the first overafter lunch for 80, and from then on the rest of the innings was aprocession.”Throughout the series we haven’t applied ourselves as best as we could,”said Vaughan. “Paul and Belly got us through to lunch, but after thatShoaib produced a good spell of bowling, Kaneria took a couple of quickwickets.”To be honest they played better cricket than we have. You can look backto Multan and say we should have won that game, but throughout thethree-match series, Pakistan put us more under pressure than we managed.”For Vaughan, the defeat was just his sixth in 33 matches as Englandcaptain, a reign that reached its zenith last summer with victory overAustralia, but has now reached an undoubted low. Now, with a testing tourof India awaiting after Christmas, he admitted that the coming monthswould be a test of character.
‘Our bowlers have tried as hard as they can…but our batters wedidn’t apply themselves enough in these conditions to get the big scoresand put them under enough pressure’ © AFP
“A real test of a team’s unity is when you lose a series like this,” hesaid. “If the team stays together which I am sure they will do, we workhard when we go to India for test series, try and play well in theone-dayers and make sure to go to India with a better team.”After the Ashes, there had been some notion that England were set tochallenge Australia’s undisputed as world champions, but Vaughan dismissedsuch thoughts. “We are still a long way from becoming the No. 1 team inthe world because of the fact we haven’t played everywhere. We are still avery good team we just have to make sure we learn and learn fast in theseconditions.There was no doubt, however, in which department the blame for the seriesloss was residing. “Our bowlers have tried as hard as they can,” Vaughanstressed. “We claimed 20 wickets in the first Test but our batters wedidn’t apply themselves enough in these conditions to get the big scoresand put them under enough pressure. When you are outplayed you don’tdeserve to win.””We’ve got to go to India in February and March and make sure that wedon’t repeat the mistakes that were made here. It’s hard work playing insubcontinent and players have to realise that. We should try and make surewe get 20 wickets and make sure we make big totals in the first innings.”