Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq heaped praise on England for their superb comeback to clinch the one-day series after being routed in the preceding Tests, saying they showed character and discipline. England thumped Pakistan by nine wickets in the third match here on Saturday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead, leaving the fourth and final match here on Tuesday as inconsequential.
Misbah, who lost his first one-day series as captain after four wins, said England were the better side. “It’s not a nice feeling to lose,” Misbah said after the match. “We need to give credit to England for the way they have come back after defeat in Tests. I feel they have played much better cricket than us and were very disciplined.” Steven Finn with 3-24 and Stuart Broad 3-42 helped England restrict Pakistan to 222 depite aggressive half-centuries from Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal. England then chased down the target in 37.2 overs with Kevin Pietersen ending his 36 innings century drought with an unbeaten 111 and Alastair Cook scoring 80 — narrowly missing a third consecutive hundred in successive matches. Misbah said England attained world number one ranking in Tests through consistent performance.
“We expected they will come back any time and they showed they learnt from their mistakes in Tests,” said Misbah, who noted that playing away from home could be a factor in team’s lackluster performance. “I feel the fact that we are playing away from home can be a factor. Sometime you feel home sickness. It is not that I’m giving an excuse on this matter but it happens when you are not playing at home,” said Misbah. Pakistan have been forced to play its home series on neutral venues as teams refuse to tour them over secuirty fears. They have not hosted international cricket since terrorists attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore three years ago.
