To defeat England at Lord's is special: Misbah-ul-Haq

Misbah-ul-Haq was perhaps the heart of Pakistan’s victory over England at Lord’s with a century in the first innings. However, the 42-year old evergreen skipper of Pakistan stated that it was indeed a special feeling to defeat England at Lord’s. Misbah also added that he was proud of his players as well as acknowledging the player’s contributions towards the victory.

“To defeat England at Lord’s is special. But for me as captain, this win at Lord’s is special in many ways. Because it was after the spot-fixing scandal at Lord’s that I was made test captain and we started rebuilding the team,” Misbah said in an interview.

“Pakistan cricket has not had it easy in the last six years with teams also refusing to play in Pakistan because of the security issues,” he added.

“But I am proud of my players that they have braved it out and faced all these problems manfully and kept on producing the goods. To see happiness and joy on the faces of the Pakistanis at Lord’s was special for all of us.”

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“The win was also important because of the hard work the army trainers put in with us during the camp in Kakul. The push-ups were our way of acknowledging their contribution to preparing us for his tour,” Misbah said.

“The series is not yet over they are still three more tests to go and I am just more confident now that we can keep going well,” he added.

“It is because of everyone that we won. The contributions in both innings by Asad Shafiq and his crucial partnership with Sarfaraz Ahmed, Yasir and Rahat’s bowling it all fell nicely into place. I am very proud of my players,” he said.

“England is a very good side and they are particularly good in their own conditions. So we know we have some tough sessions ahead of us and the series is still wide open. We need to now just work harder on improving our fielding and batting. In England the batsmen still have to show better judgement while playing shots,” he added.

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“At times it is annoying all the criticism. At times it serves as a motivation for us and at times we know some of the criticism is justified. But in the end we all want to see Pakistan win,” he said.

“As a test side we have come a long way and we have notched up some great wins. But Lord’s was special.”

“It is now up to us to just maintain the performances we produced in the first test and not repeat the mistakes we made there.”

“We are aware of that but we are quietly confident that we have a very good unit and balance in all departments.”

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