It may have rarely been the plan, but according to Sajid, the target audience for the conversation was not all the alternatives except Pakistani-origin spinners Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir.
“We were just doing that [speaking loudly in Urdu] to fool the players. Rehan and Shoaib understand Urdu, so to trick them, we wanted them to hear that we were just looking for the single. When we did that, they lifted the field and the players blew it up. Saud told me that once they do it, there’s no half measures: just go for the big fish as hard as you can.”
And Sajid did it. After Bashir bowled, Sajid plundered two sixes and a boundary in much the same manner, swinging against the midwicket boundary and finding the middle of the bat with regularity. 19 came out of it, and although Rehan kept him calmer, he got stung once he spread the farmland. Sajid took the boys to long and long distances, conveniently clearing the rope. The wheels, by this time, had started to come off the target of England’s bowling and Pakistan’s supremacy had soared.
Rehan said the innings component, but he had none of Sajid’s claims. “He didn’t fool me at all, he just said it for the media,” he laughed. “I didn’t even hear him. He said something like he was going to run for this ball and I knew he was going to try.” “He got me out, and it didn’t really work out. I thought he hit well and hit some hard shots, but he didn’t really fool me or Bash.”
