by Abdul Habib
25th July 2010

Azhar Ali (like all his colleagues) is very proud to have been part of the team which finally ended Pakistan's seemingly endless losing streak against Australia. Azhar said that Pakistani fans and players alike had been waiting a long time for this day.

"Before I became a cricketer, I was a fan. As both a fan and a cricketer there was always a desire to see Pakistan beat the best team in the world. There's a certain sense of frustration when you see Pakistan repeatedly lose from a winning position and when you're stood outside looking in as a fan then there's a feeling of helplessness too. That's why I was determined that I would make the Aussies work for my wicket, they would have to take it from me."

"We won this game because the bowlers put us into such a great position on day 1, after that it was our game to lose. I'm really proud of my second innings partnership with Farhat and of my first test 50 but I was absolutely gutted to get out. When my wicket fell we only needed 34 more runs and I had wanted to stay till the end and win the game for Pakistan." Azhar Ali stated exclusively to Cricistan.com.

When asked if there were any jitters in the Pakistani dressing room when wickets were falling in the morning, Azhar said that they had still been confident of a win but that they respected the Australians ability to come back.

"Of course when wickets fall together, there'll be some trepidation in any dressing room. But on the final morning, there were so few runs needed that we still felt that we would win the match. Australia did their best to stop us, their fielding was brilliant. If they hadn't blocked a couple of early shots, which were on their way to the fence, then the game would've been over a lot quicker. They are experts at applying pressure and making even the smallest of totals look like they'll be hard to get. It worked for them against us in the past but today was our day and hopefully we've now broken that jinx." Azhar told Cricistan.com.

When I asked Azhar about the England series and what it felt like to be given the coveted number 3 position held by batsmen such as Ponting, Dravid, Sangakarra and Younis he was very positive on both counts.

"I agree with you that the number 3 position is a very important one. I want to be the best player that I can and I see batting at number 3 as a great challenge. It's an opportunity for me to show what I'm capable of and it helps my confidence to know that the team management have trusted me to bat at such a pivotal number. I look forward to the challenge of the upcoming test series against England. They're a very good team and we're going to have to be at the top of our game to compete with them but I'm confident that this Pakistani team will give as good as it gets." Azhar explained to Cricistan.com

Pakistan's next game is the 1st test against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham; hopefully Pakistan's new number 3 and his team mates will continue the good work that they started at Headingley.