Misbah-ul-Haq admitted his Pakistan side had been reduced to ‘panic’ after England got to within 25 runs of an unlikely victory on Saturday.

When the tourists made their declaration on 598-9, a first innings lead of 75, midway through the final morning, a draw looked to be the only plausible outcome.

But England defied the placid surface to bowl out their opponents in 57.5 second innings overs for 173, debutant leg-spinner Adil Rashid taking five for 64.

England needed 99 to win with 19 overs remaining in the day, only for bad light to cause an early finish eight overs short of the allocation and just 25 more runs needed for victory.

Misbah, who was unhappy with the surface supplied in Abu Dhabi, admitted he was relieved to escape with a draw.

"If a situation changes quickly you have to cope with it," said the Pakistan captain.

"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 into 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.”

Misbah, together with Younus Khan, looked to be saving the match for Pakistan as they posted a partnership of 70 for the fourth wicket.

Once the experienced duo were parted, however, the host nation’s final six wickets fell for 60 runs.

“We did make a couple of mistakes that we ought not to repeat,” added Misbah.

“The shots I and Younus played wasn't needed at that time - we could have easily survived and played through.

"It all happens with pressure. 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 into such situation where you crumble under pressure.

“We obviously had a plan to play sweeps against the off-spinner and I should have stuck with the option but I picked the wrong shot. It was a big blunder on the wrong time.”

When it came to defending their low total, Misbah handed the new ball to his spinners.

Although Zulfikar Babar and Shoaib Malik were successful in taking the wickets of Moeen Ali (11), Jos Buttler (4), Ben Stokes (2) and Jonny Bairstow (15), Joe Root was in the process of guiding England to victory when bad light finally prevailed.

"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,” revealed Misbah.

“We knew the ball wasn't coming onto the bat and with the light staying even until 5.40pm we had to be on our toes."

As for the benign Sheikh Zayed Stadium surface, Misbah expressed his disapproval that no spin had been on offer.

“It was a clear message what we wanted,” he said. “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."

 

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