Prior admits England at fault as Pakistan take early command

England endured a torrid time against the unorthodox Pakistan off-spinner, collapsing to 192 all out, but they had no quibbles afterwards about the straightness of the arm which had taken a career-best 7-55 on day one of this three-match series in the United Arab Emirates.

Instead, the noises off came from a former England captain several thousand miles away in London, Bob Willis voicing his teatime opinion, in a broadcast studio, that Ajmal is pushing the limits of the current Laws of Cricket.

England’s plight was soothed a little by Matt Prior (70no), who made it clear at stumps – after Pakistan had responded with an untroubled 42-0 – that the tourists have no objections to Ajmal’s action.

Even so Ajmal, reported back in 2009 and cleared then of transgressing the permitted straightening of his arm, had to account for himself again.

“I’m just concentrating on my bowling. It’s the umpires’ and match referee’s responsibility to see if there is any problem with my action,” he said.

“They did it to (former Pakistan off-spinner) Saqlain Mushtaq. They are doing it with me.

“I have played county cricket, and there has been no problem with my action.”

There was no equivocation from Prior either.

“On his action, it’s not something that we are concerned about or talk about in the dressing room,” said England’s wicketkeeper-batsman.

“It’s got nothing to do with us.

“If other people want to do that, it’s up to them.”

Prior acknowledged that, irrespective of Ajmal’s methods, England’s batsmen fell short of their own expectations. But he remains confident the tourists can still fight back here.

“Obviously today has not gone as we wanted,” he said. “But it’s not all over – we can’t just give it up now.

“We’ve got a huge day (today), and we’re very confident we can pull something out of this game.

“The great thing is that this team’s been in tough positions and fought our way back. We’ve won and saved Test matches from this position.

“So it’s nothing new.”

Prior discounted the theory that England were fazed by the hype about Ajmal’s mystery deliveries during the build-up to this series.

“I don’t think he got in our heads,” Prior said. “Obviously, we spoke about him because he’s a big threat. I don’t think it’s a case of us over-thinking or fearing – we just didn’t quite get it right.

“He bowled well. Hats off to him.”

Prior’s innings was a triumph of self-discipline, the natural strokemaker restricting himself to three boundaries from 154 balls.

For Ajmal – despite the hint of controversy – it was simply a day to savour.

“It’s the best performance of my life,” he said. “I bowled wicket to wicket, and there were a few bad shots as well. There was low bounce, and some of them played cross-bat shots.

“We are not surprised. We have been working on a plan, and we have bowled them out as per the plan.”

Prior found significant assistance only from Eoin Morgan and then Graeme Swann – with whom he added 57 for the eighth wicket.

England had lost Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott in the first hour even before the intervention of Ajmal.

Once he entered the attack at 42-2, he bowled 16 overs unchanged almost until tea – and then returned to finish the job.

A paltry crowd of hundreds rather than thousands attended the 25,000-capacity Dubai International Cricket Stadium, almost exclusively English in this neutral territory for Pakistan’s “home” series.

But Cook soon departed, to only the third delivery of spin in only the sixth over, from off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez.

Trott registered England’s first three boundaries before going too far across to Aizaz Cheema to edge behind down the leg-side.

It was the introduction of Ajmal, Pakistan’s fifth bowler used, which spelled real trouble for England.

Strauss paid for an apparent misjudgment, attempting to pull off the front foot and bowled by a ball which did not seem to be short enough.

Ian Bell went for a first-ball duck, in Ajmal’s next over, pushing forward in defence only to get a thin edge behind.

Three balls later, Kevin Pietersen was lbw – via the series’ first DRS ruling – to one that snaked past the outside edge and hit him low on the front pad.

Morgan and Prior had almost doubled the score, when the former missed a sweep at Ajmal and was leg before.

England failed with a DRS attempt to overturn that decision from Bruce Oxenford, and the Australian was proved right again after Stuart Broad made the same mistake.

Swann could hardly be blamed for losing his off bail to a perfectly-pitched delivery from Abdur Rehman which also turned sharply.

Prior grabbed another 41 for the last two wickets as Nos 10 and 11 lent fair support until succumbing, almost inevitably, to Ajmal.

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