It could hardly have been the plan, but according to Sajid, the intended audience for the conversation was not each other, but 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 know 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. The next delivery on Bashir, Sajid plundered two sixes and a boundary in the same manner, moving towards the mid-wicket boundary, finding the middle of the bat with regularity. 19 came out ahead, and although Rehan kept it calmer, he got stung when he spread the field. Sajid took the men long and long distances, comfortably releasing the rope. By now, England’s bowling effort had begun to weaken and Pakistan’s lead had ballooned.
Rehan acknowledged the quality of the innings but did not accept any 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.”
