Pakistan reduced to panic

In a dramatic turnaround on day five, England almost gave a scare to Pakistan, transforming four dull days into a decisive climax. Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan captain said his side was caught up in "panic" as they lost their last five wickets in five overs but that salvaging a dramatic draw protected their confidence and left them with "no sense of defeat".

"If a situation changes quickly you have to cope with it," said Misbah. "Credit should be given to the England side in the way they scored almost 600 runs and kept us under pressure. They kept control and later pushed us in a panic situation but it's quite obvious that when such matches are saved it keeps the confidence alive. Had we lost this, trailing the series by 1-0, then it could have quashed the confidence.

"At least we are not down. In Dubai it's a different pitch, different game and it's our hunting ground as well. We did make a couple of mistakes that we ought not to repeat. The shot I and Younis played wasn't needed at that time - we could have easily survived and played through."

For four days the pitch was cursed for its slowness and unresponsiveness. But on day five the twist started when James Anderson removed Shan Masood and Shoaib Malik in the same over, leaving Adil Rashid to take charge later, picking up a five-wicket haul to leave Pakistan with a lead of 98.

"It all happens with pressure," said Misbah. "It was the fifth day with rough patches and obviously we made mistakes with two ugly run outs and bad shots to push us into the situation.

"Such mistakes take you nowhere and push you in such situation where you crumble under pressure. We obviously had a plan to play sweeps against the offspinner and I should have struck with the option but I picked the wrong shot. It was a big blunder on the wrong time.

As England take the moral victory, it was like deja vu for Pakistan. "This is what Test cricket is all about. We have been in such a situation so many times. I can recall two occasions in Galle - one we won and the other we lost. So we knew how to cope with this situation.

"We were looking to take wickets early on with the spinners and later on with the light fading we were looking to go with seamers and the plan worked. We knew the ball wasn't coming on the bat and with the light staying even until 5.40pm we had to be on toes."

The pitch was expected to turn at least from the day three but it didn't respond at all until the final day. Misbah once again hit out the surface. "It was a clear message what we wanted. Even a kid knows that when we play against England we always want a turning pitch. I don't know why the pitch wasn't made the way it should have been. I am equally surprised as you are about it."