Buoyed by a surprising four-wicket win in the third Test at The Oval, Pakistan will push for an unlikely series-levelling victory in the four-Test series finale getting underway here at Lord’s Thursday.
Pakistan captain Salman Butt said that his young team can beat England provided it played to its potential.
“The main thing is to stick as a unit,” said Salman. “We’ve experienced different situations on this tour and have learnt that there is no need to go very high or very low,” he said referring to Pakistan’s big defeats in three Tests and two surprising wins on this current tour against Australia and England.
“Two very good victories and two losses, away from home and against top sides is a very good record. Nobody expected us to win but my team has shown character by beating both Australia and England,” Salman added.
Andrew Strauss, his England counterpart, declared that his team will go all out for a win to seal the series it is leading 2-1.
“We desperately want to win this series. Having gone 2-0 up we want to finish them off. There is a nice determined atmosphere. We feel we maybe have a point to prove and that’s a good state of mind to be in,” he added.
Strauss, who has been unimpressive with the bat in this series, hopes to find his form at Lord’s.
“I would like to score more runs than I have in this series,” said the left-handed opener.
“The key is cash in after settling out there,” stressed Strauss, who hasn’t scored a century since hitting a superb 161 on July 16 in the Ashes Test against Australia here at Lord’s.
“I’ve always played well at Lord’s,” he said adding that one must not read too much into the fact that he hasn’t played a big knock all this summer. “It’s one of those things,” he said. “I haven’t reached three figures but I’ve made some useful contributions.”
