Graeme Swann rubbishes Andy Flower's claim England lost to Pakistan due to taking too long a winter break

Graeme Swann refuses to accept England coach Andy Flower's claim that the whitewash defeat to Pakistan was in large part due to the fact the side arrived in the UAE underprepared after taking an extended two month winter break.

In a spin: Graeme Swann says England's failure against spin rather than complacency or being underprepared cost England against Pakistan  Photo: ACTION IMAGES

England in danger of losing world No 1 status after miserable Pakistan whitewash

England's lead at the top of the ICC's Test rankings has been cut to a solitary point following their series whitewash against Pakistan.
On 125 points going into the three-match series in the United Arab Emirates, England slipped to 118 and now hold just a one-point margin over second-placed South Africa, who can now usurp Andy Flower's men ahead of the April 1 end-of-season awards and claim the £110,000.

Bad day at the office: England lost the three-match series against Pakistan

To do that, the Proteas would have to win their series against New Zealand next month 3-0.
Pakistan, meanwhile, move within striking distance of the top four in the world after leaping from 99 points to 108, just three behind India and Australia.
They also now hold a 10-point margin over sixth-placed Sri Lanka, their next Test opponents in May and June.

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Pakistan Whitewashes England 3-0 defeated England by 71 Runs

Dubai - humari news, Pakistan defeated England by 71 runs in 3rd test against England and whitewashed England 3-0 in the series.This is a new record that a team who bowled out 99 in first inning and than defeated his opposite team in the match.Afridi congrates Pakistan team talking with HUMARI NEWS.He said that Pakistan team is going on a right path and Pakistan will now aiming to white wash England in ODI too.Pakistan team creates a history after whitewashing England.England is ICC TEST no.1 side.Defeating England and with whitewash is not a easily like eating a piece of cake.A team who defeated Australia , India is now defeated by ICC no.4 side PAKISTAN.Fans of Pakistan is now too much happy and glad with their teams performance against ICC no.1 test side England.

Pakistan required 1 more wicket to white wash England and creating a history

 Pakistan team requires only 1 wicket to create a history of 100 years that a team who all out in first inning defeats his opponent team.

The sunny disposition of Saeed Ajmal and the stiff-limbed tenacity of Abdur Rehman have tormented England throughout this Test series and there was the slimmest likelihood of escape at tea on the fourth day of the final Test in Dubai as Pakistan sought to inflict a whitewash upon England for the first time.

There was plentiful spin for Pakistan's spinners, leaping spin at times when the ball struck the rough, and England, still 151 runs short of victory with only four wickets remaining, looked bound for a 3-0 defeat in the series.

Ajmal, spinning the ball both ways, not extravagantly but often, dismissed Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook in the afternoon session, to add to Jonathan Trott before lunch. Rehman counted Andrew Strauss as his sole success as he bowled unchanged for two sessions, 30 overs sent down with unerring accuracy. He is the sort of spin bowler who looks slightly weary from the outset, but never noticeably tires after that.

Pietersen was bent upon playing enterprisingly. The first ball of the afternoon provided a reminder of his vulnerability when a bat-pad against Rehman flew high past short leg, but he had the fleeting satisfaction of striking him straight for six before Ajmal, from around the wicket, spun one through the gate and beamed at further bounty.

Cook put up statuesque resistance. Along the way he became the second youngest person, at 27 years and 43 days, to reach 6,000 Test runs. Only Sachin Tendulkar has reached the landmark at a younger age. His most attacking shot of the morning, a loft into the leg side against Rehman, caused the bowler to taunt him with applause. He lived on scraps, combating the turning ball with thoughtful defence and numerous works to the leg side and that proved his undoing as a leading edge was brilliantly held by Younis Khan, diving to his left at first slip.

The emphasis has been upon spin, but Umar Gul reminded England that the quicker bowlers should not be entirely discounted as he got the old ball to reverse swing as much as at any time in the series. Ian Bell's state of mind is such that a long hop is quite enough. He averaged more than 100 last summer, less than 10 in this series, and when Gul offered up a gift he mistimed it wide of point. The ball that dismissed Eoin Morgan, caught by the wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal, who embarked upon a merry dance, was of higher quality.

England, 36 runs banked the previous evening, needed a further 288 at the start of play. Strauss fell in the sixth over of the morning, lbw on the back foot to Rehman. That was lbw No. 42 in this three-Test series, one short of the all-time record for a series of any length. Strauss reviewed it, although it smacked of a captain's review and he would have been better to head smartly for the dressing room. But when it comes to captain's reviews Strauss cannot match Misbah-ul-Haq. Misbah has been lbw on five occasions in this series and he has taken a review every time. It must be a captain's prerogative.

Without lapses in the field, Pakistan could have been in a stronger position. They had dropped Cook the previous evening, a relatively simple chance to Taufeeq Umar at third slip and Gul's drop in the shadows of the stand at deep square gave him another reprieve as Pakistan lost the efficiency that has characterised their cricket throughout this series. Rehman made his frustration clear when he caught Trott at deep square as he flung the ball into the turf with feeling at the errors that had gone before.

Adnan's fumble behind the stumps to reprieve Strauss, although not costly as the England captain was out in the next over, was the worst miss of all. Adnan has had a good series behind the stumps and has the opportunity to be Pakistan's first-choice keeper for many years to come but his excitable chatter had reached a peak. As Pakistan press for victory, it is in danger of becoming counterproductive. Strauss' edge flew to him at comfortable height but he put it down. For a few minutes he was quiet and you could hear your ears ringing.

Adnan's cacophony of cries often rent the air for inexplicable reasons. As do parrots, Adnan vocalises for many reasons. He may be excitedly greeting the day or summoning his family at sunset. He may be screeching when he is excited or when he is merely trying it on. He may screech when he thinks things have got too quiet or when he thinks it is his duty to scream. He just likes screeching. At one point he burst out coughing as if in sore need of a lozenge and Trott looked at him in deadpan fashion.

Adnan is also incorrigibly optimistic about reviewing umpiring decisions. "Do it, do it, yes, yes, all good," you can sense him saying. Misbah has learned not to take his evidence into consideration and looks askance at him. But Pakistan challenged umpire Steve Davis' not-out ruling when Ajmal beat Cook on the sweep. Hawk-Eye showed that the ball pitched outside leg. There again, disturbingly, it seems that Hawk-Eye also cannot read Ajmal's doosra, probably because it is English.

The man of crises, the superman of Pakistan team - Younis Khan

After getting bundled out in the first innings for a paltry 99, Pakistan bounced back in the second with a commanding 180-run lead. The chief architect of this act Younis Khan, came into this game amid heavy scrutiny as he had failed to make a compelling impact on the series thus far.


Walking in with Pakistan hanging by the thread at 28 for 2, he got off the mark with an inside edge down to backward square. The enormity of the challenge he faced could be judged by the fact that it had been raining wickets since Day 1.


These were testing times for Pakistan. While all were busy making assumptions and predictions of a meagre total, Younis and Azhar silently resolved to take advantage of a pitch that was flattening out and take Pakistan to a secure position heading into Day 3.


It took Younis 20 balls to stroke his first boundary, an elegant straight drive presenting full face of the bat off Stuart Broad. Along with Azhar Ali, he showed true grit and determination in crafting an astounding revival in this innings.


Throughout his innings, he rarely gave the bowlers or DRS a chance to dislodge him. Younis presented the perfect technique of extricating yourself from frailties of the DRS system. Confidence was oozing from his stroke play as he punished anything short or wide from the bowlers. Younis was particularly good against spin bowlers, making use of his favorite sweep shot astutely.


Stauss’s applause for Younis Khan and Azhar Ali, as they marched off the ground clearly indicated a day bossed by the king who registered 20^th century under his belt with a strike rate of 58.97 in this innings.


In a broader perspective, Younis’s innings may well make Pakistan the first team since 1907, to win a test after being bundled out for less than a 100 runs in the first innings of a Test match. For now though, in a series which has failed to enchant the batsmen Younis Khan along with Azhar Ali has played a pivotal role in ascertaining Pakistan’s dominance over England.

Azhar 50 & Younis' century puts Pakistan in control

Close Pakistan 99 and 222 for 2 (Younis 115*, Azhar 75*) lead England 141 (Strauss 56, Rehman 5-40) by 180 runs

	Younis Khan scored the first century of this series to put Pakistan in the driving seat in the third Test © Getty Images
Related Links Matches: England v Pakistan at Dubai (DSC) Series/Tournaments: England tour of United Arab Emirates Teams: England | Pakistan Gallery: Younis, Azhar seize control for Pakistan

The first hundred of this Test series was a long time in coming but it was well worth the wait. It went to Younis Khan. His enduring talent has again lifted Pakistan's expectations that they can achieve their first whitewash in a Test series against England.

When Younis came to the crease shortly before lunch on the second day, he was out of form, 22 wickets had fallen for 268 runs and batsmen on both sides were in mental turmoil over a record number of lbw decisions in a three-Test series. Not another wicket fell all day.

By the close, Younis had 115, his third-wicket stand with Azhar Ali was worth 194 in 72 overs and Pakistan's lead was 180. Some Pakistan fans held aloft a banner stating that Pakistan's target was to be the No. 1 Test side in the world. England can confirm it is an uncomfortable place to be.

Whenever mutterings are heard that his Test career is nearing an end, Younis comes up with something special. England tried to bowl straight, seeking to add to the 37 lbws in the series (the record in any length of series is 43) but the pitch was slow and the sound of ball against pad was conspicuous by its absence as Younis worked the ball serenely through the leg side.

It is only two months since Younis took an unbeaten double hundred off Bangladesh in Chittagong and his serenity flooded back. Both he and Azhar, whose restrained unbeaten 75 again identified him as a talent in the making, read the line confidently, their footwork was crisp and on the rare occasions Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann matched the turn found by Pakistan's left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, they had the skill to adjust to the ball off the pitch.

England imagined they might have dismissed Azhar lbw, on 70, just before the close when Swann found turn around leg stump. Umpire Simon Taufel said no, England reviewed, more in hope than expectation, but to the consternation of the fielding side Hawk-Eye showed the ball going too high. Pakistan's lead was 168 and England had not got the break they desperately needed. Andrew Strauss, an England captain with no time to waste, even took the new ball two overs before the close.

Younis' second 50 took 60 balls and changed the complexion of the match. His gathering confidence was illustrated when he twice reverse-swept Swann as England's spinners resorted to bowling into the rough outside leg stump. Two short balls from Panesar helped him through the 90s. When he swept Panesar to reach his 20th Test hundred, two greats of India's past, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, were moved to rise from their seats in the VIP area and applaud.

But the incident that will most trouble England was one of the rare balls Younis missed: a delivery from Panesar that pitched on middle, dislodged a piece of turf as it spun past the outside edge, and cracked Anderson on the left shoulder at first slip. This is a dry pitch and it can be expected to turn extravagantly as the match progresses.

It all possessed a different feel to the pre-lunch session. Six more wickets tumbled on the second morning, with England scraping a first-innings lead of 42 and then removing Pakistan's openers. Taufeeq Umar's technical frailties were again evident as James Anderson bowled one from wide on the crease to have him caught by Strauss at first slip. Mohammad Hafeez, after striking Panesar cleanly for a straight six, fell lbw to an over-ambitious sweep.

England's batting frailties are now so extreme that their average of 17.84 runs per wicket is currently lower than in any completed series since the 19th century, an era when the roller was probably pulled by a horse, if they could find a horse, and the art of groundsmanship extended to little more than pushing the stumps in.

England began the series fretting about the mysterious spin bowling of Saeed Ajmal but they are ending it baffled by the conventional approach of Rehman, who took five wickets for the second successive innings as Pakistan restricted England's first-innings lead. This canny left-arm spinner, enjoying unforeseen riches in his late-blooming career, had performed the sajda on the outfield in Abu Dhabi when he took five Test wickets in an innings for the first time. Once again he fell to his knees.

England, resuming on 104 for 6, lasted 12 overs. Anderson, the night-watchman, propped forward to the last ball of the first over and was bowled through the gate. It was the sort of respectable, turning delivery Rehman has produced on countless occasions and suddenly it looked unplayable.

Stuart Broad hinted at positive intent but he was lbw to Ajmal after Pakistan turned to DRS to overturn Steve Davis' not-out decision. Broad was straight back to the laptop, analysing his dismissal, seeking answers. Another centimetre and he would have been outside the line. Umpires would never give anybody out on such small margins; technology does.

Andrew Strauss' prolonged resistance ended at eight-down, to his most adventurous shot. He had extended his overnight 41 to 56 when he came down the pitch to hit Rehman over the legside and was stumped by Adnan Akmal.