Yousuf shepherds his flock to safety

London : One man does not a team make. But if he is Mohammad Yousuf, he can make one heck of a difference. Pakistan had lacked a batsman of substance and solidity throughout this series, their middle-order lambs wandering aimlessly and cluelessly without a guiding hand.

Here at the Oval, in Yousuf they found their shepherd. The transformation was remarkable. Take the case of Azhar Ali as evidence enough. Previously he looked so out of his depth as to be an impostor; now, with his first-innings 92 not out, he looked a batsman that belongs. Yousuf may only have scored 56 and 33, but a measure of his value is that when he fell on Saturday, with only 17 runs required for victory, Pakistan froze.

The rock had gone; the runs dried up and panic set in. It took some time for any equilibrium to be recovered, but recovered it was. And Pakistan took a deserved victory.

But, with ball again dominating bat (as it always used to be, didn't it?), it had been a special joy to watch Yousuf in this match, a batsman for once not wholly concerned with bursting the skin of the ball at every opportunity, an old-fashioned craftsman quietly going about his business.

And this despite having to spend considerable time in the first innings reacquainting himself with life in the middle after his foreshortened ‘retirement'. Most modern batsmen use bats that look like tree trunks; Yousuf uses one that more resembles a toothpick. Whereas most ‘go hard' at the ball, Yousuf plays the ball conspicuously late, relying on deflections and square drives, persuading the ball into gaps rather than powering it.

Reverse swing

Only a searing yorker from James Anderson could defeat him on Saturday. But then that has always been his one weakness. When England played Pakistan at Newlands, Cape Town, in the World Cup of 2003, next to the name of Yousuf Youhana — as he was then before conversion — coach Duncan Fletcher wrote on the whiteboard before the match: "Swinging yorker early."

Anderson duly obliged. Immediately. First ball, swinging away with conventional rather than the reverse swing of yesterday, but still too good even for the master. Presumably at the moment the Pakistan coach, Waqar Younis, writes only one thing next to the name of England's captain Andrew Strauss: "left-armer".

Strauss really has become Mohammad Amir's bunny in this series. Four times from five the brilliant left-armer has taken his wicket, and then here another southpaw Wahab Riaz joined the fun.

Important lesson

Doug Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson may just be taking note. Strauss did not have a good game. Some field-placings mystified yesterday, and he dropped a dolly of a catch from Mohammad Asif at the end of Pakistan's first innings, costing 34 valuable runs.

Think how the concluding moments might have been without those slivers of gold dust in Pakistan's book. But such times are horribly awkward. It is said that an opening batsman must, mentally, begin his innings when the opposition's eighth wicket falls. But an opener who is also captain does not have such a luxury. Strauss forgot that on Thursday.

And this is presumably why his opposite number Salman Butt has dropped down the order, if only one place. He must seem like a soldier removed from the front line to join the reserves miles behind. Not that Strauss should consider such a move, of course.

He just needs a score at Lord's, that's all. Just as Alastair Cook needed a score here. Goodness, he did. But how he responded. His century was an important lesson, I thought. A lesson that over-complication can stifle, then ruin a player. Fault can be found in every shot, good or bad. Of course, analysis has its place, but not if, as the cliche goes, it paralyses.

Cook cleared his mind in his second innings here. He watched the ball closely and looked to score runs from every ball. As simple as that. Not once did he glance behind at his backlift, not once did he fret about his footwork. He led with his head. In other words, he thought about his head going toward the ball.

Only then can you bend your front leg as he did when coming forward. It was the most human of performances. When he pulled Riaz for four early on, he laughed. And so did we. When the edges flew betwixt slips, we winced with him. We, even the most cynical among the fourth estate, were with him every ball. Or so it seemed. Tell me you did not holler too when Asif hurled the ball for four and the century was brought up.