When Misbah-ul-Haq launched into a ball from Robin Peterson and sent it sailing into the sight screen at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Pakistan had done the unexpected, yet there was a sense of familiarity in the air of the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan's shock win over top-ranked South Africa shouldn't really surprise, they have a history of taking down giants. They are also known to fall like ninepins right after it as the events at Dubai demonstrated.

Unpredictable, erratic, mercurial and eccentric are adjectives that have always helped describe Pakistan cricket. The spark that had set Abu Dhabi’s sports city on fire came from the same flare that failed to go off at the sports club of Harare a month earlier.

When Pakistan came into existence in 1947, cricket was the number one sport in the sub-continent. However, pre- partitioned India was already a full member nation at the ICC since 1932 and the new independent state of India continued its participation in international Test cricket. Pakistan on the other hand was a completely new country and did not automatically qualify to become a part of the Test cricket cartel. Most cricketers and resources were left behind in India, and Pakistan had to fight against the odds from day one.

In the winter of 1951, a full strength English national team (formerly known as M.C.C) was on a tour of India when they hopped across the border to play Pakistan in two side games. The first game in Lahore ended in a draw but England was shocked to find themselves against a Pakistan side that was on fire at the Karachi Gymkhana Cricket Ground. Fazal Mehmood and Khan Mohammad ran through the English batting line up in the first innings, picking up six and three wickets respectively and wrapping it up at a 123 runs in 64 overs. In the fourth innings, school boy Hanif Muhammad and captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar chased down a target of 288, losing just six wickets. In their first attempt, Pakistan had done what India had never been able to achieve in its two decade of cricket history; beat their colonial masters at a sport they prided on most.

The British press took their team to task and Pakistan was granted Test status by the ICC. The entire cricket world was stunned and Pakistan had shown the first glimpse of the enchantment that would eventually become synonymous to its game.

Pakistan made its first official Test tour in 1952 with high hopes and still fresh from the victory against England. Kardar led Pakistan in a five-Test series against India, a country that he himself had represented before partition. In the first Test the Pakistani batting crumbled under pressure in typical fashion and suffered a demoralizing innings defeat at Feroze Shah Kotla. Were the Pakistanis fit for the big stage? Had they been drafted into the international arena prematurely? Was their win against the M.C.C a one off fluke? Serious questions loomed upon cricket’s newest entrants who could show little fight.

One week later, Fazal Mehmood came back to destroy the strong Indian batting line up and registered match figures of 12 for 94 in Lucknow. The Pakistani pace battery took just three hours and twenty-five minutes to dismiss the Indians in the first innings. In reply Nazar Mohammad (father of Mudassar Nazar) carried his bat in a painstaking 124*that lasted eight hours and thirty five minutes on a tricky matting pitch made of jute. Pakistan won their first Test match in their second official game in a thumping innings defeat. Pakistan had made a strong statement; they not just belonged with the big boys but also played with venom.

A huge Pakistani contingent showed up at the ground the next morning to see their team ignite the Englishmen. Pakistan had switched on the furnace and every run seemed like a milestone for the English, Pakistan recorded a historic win when Jim McConnon tried to steal a single but fell short of the crease still 24 runs a drift. Last four wickets were bottled for 18 runs that morning and the Kingdom was Fazalled by Pakistan’s magic.

England had lost their first Test match in over three years and the Oval Test witnessed one of the largest crowds in a cricket ground in Britain since World War II. The Pakistani team drew their first series in England but returned home as nothing less than heroes that had conquered the land of their former rulers.

Pakistan then went onto beat New Zealand by an innings in their first Test meeting in 1955 and wrapped up a 2-0 series win at home. Pakistan was still the underdog but with their fast growing reputation, a series win at home against the Kiwis was not utterly shocking.

Pakistan also beat Australia in the very first Test match against them in 1956. A team that had the likes of Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Ray Lindwall, Neil Harvey and Keith Miller were overwhelmed by the young nation. Khan Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood floored the Aussies for a mere total of 80 in the first innings. Fazal took the first six wickets for 26 in sixteen overs and astoundingly the fast bowling pair were the only bowlers employed in the innings, putting in a colossal fifty four unchanged overs. The duo contributed for all twenty Aussie wickets to fall in the Test.

Australia always basked in the glory of being the best team in the world from the inception of cricket and losing to Pakistan in their first encounter left them a little dumbfounded at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Pakistan then went onto comprehensively lose the next three games against a team that graced four knighted players; Sir Cornard Hunte, Sir Clyde Walcott, Sir Everton Weekes and Sir Garry Sobers, averaging 45.06, 56.68, 58.61 and 57.78 respectively. Along with Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs and Roy Gilchrist it was one of the most celebrated teams to date. Pakistani shoulders had dropped and it seemed that the last place they wanted to be at was on a cricket field facing the West Indians.

Pakistan was at the end of a long and hard tour and few expected them to show fight in the last Test match at the Port of Spain, Trinidad. Through excellent pace bowling again by Fazal Mahmood and Khan Mohammad West Indies were restricted to a modest 268 in the first innings. In reply, Saeed Ahmad and Wazir Mohammad mastered the West Indies attack and shared a stand of 169, followed by a partnership between brothers, Wazir and Hanif of a 154 runs. Wazir made a valiant 189 in 405 minutes and Pakistan notched up a first innings lead of 228. This time it was not the Pakistani flamboyance but instead a display of fortitude in battle.

The strong West Indian batting lineup had a lot of repair work on their hands and started off well with a 71-run opening stand between Hunte and Kanhai. But soon two young Pakistani spinners were brought on from both ends; the 19-year- old off spinner Haseeb Ahsan and a 16-year-old slow left arm prodigy in Naseem-ul-Ghani. The pair strangled their opponents and got eight quick wickets. West Indies needed just one run to avoid an innings defeat when Nasim-ul-Ghani got his sixth wicket of the innings, Imtiaz had whipped the bails off in a flash while debutant Jaswick Taylor was still out of his crease.

Pakistan was relentless in its pursuit of glory and had beaten the mighty West Indies by an innings and one run on their first tour to the Islands.

Pakistan had won against every single Test nation in all their first series outings. They were not just earning respect but also the love of millions of global fans that adored the Pakistani brand of cricket; spectacularly unpredictable. But a team that often torched a cricket field with their exuberance, too frequently also went up in smoke.

After Australia and England had inaugurated international Test cricket, Pakistan was the seventh nation to get full member status at the ICC. In comparison to Pakistan’s grand entrance to international cricket, the teams that preceded them took their sweet time to acclimatize. India, the country Pakistan had broken away from, won their first game on foreign soil after 35 long years in their 105th Test Match in 1968, at Dunedin, New Zealand. South Africa won their first Test after losing 11 games, West Indies 5, New Zealand 42 and India 24.

The fire that Pakistan started did not illuminate their future as it had promised to though. They remained a dangerous side but never a consistent one, full of players with extraordinary talent bowing out with unfulfilled potential. Their cricket board became a mirror image of the prevalent politics in the country, highly bureaucratic and often taken over by the men in uniform. Their team usually had at least two opponents to face, one of which were always from inside their own camp; teammates or the cricket board and in some cases, both.

Every once in a while their genius would surface and something that has been brilliantly described as The Haal of Pakistan by Osman Samiudin would take stage and like men possessed by supernatural forces, the Pakistani cricket team would perform miracles on the field of play.

However, there were enough times that Pakistan succumbed to a defeat from a position of strength. Instances of batting collapses usually outnumbered the moments of excellence and Pakistan continued to be a team that was marred with controversies and infighting. They always had splendor but lacked coherence over an extended period. One always felt that their off field shenanigans stopped them from optimally utilizing their resources.

Cricket is not just a sport in Pakistan but also a meticulous depiction of its struggle and its countering resistance.

In the last few years Pakistan has arguably gone through the worst period of socio-economic turmoil in its tormented history. The global economic meltdown that was triggered in 2008 coincided with a change of government in Pakistan. Corruption and venality had always been a part of Pakistan’s environment but never as rampant as it has been in recent times. A country that had operated in the shadows of the army for a decade came under civilian rule and internal security became Pakistan’s number one concern. The quandary faced by Pakistan at a macro level is exemplified by its cricket in almost every aspect.

Kids growing up in a troubled country often search for solace in sports but it does not appear to be an ideal scenario for cricket followers in Pakistan. The sport is tainted with the ill-repute of corrupt cricketers, an inept politicized governing board and to top it all, no international games at the stadiums.

Though, out of all the problems faced by Pakistan cricket, one of the most alarming has been the lack of fire Pakistan has always been associated with. The current outfit led by Misbah-ul-Haq has often been labeled as dim and dull, an accusation no other team from Pakistan has faced before. The dearth of match winners is harnessed with the absence of super stars, inspirational personalities and larger than life characters. These are worrying signs indeed.

The brand new Pakistani openers were the heroes of the first Test and the villains of the second against South Africa in UAE. A team that seemed elated and buoyant in Abu Dhabi appeared to be apathetic and flat when Graeme Smith and Ab de Villiers took them to the cleaners in Dubai. An inspired and uncharacteristically aggressive Pakistani captain from game one had no answers to the questions asked by the South African captain and vice captain in game two. Floored catches and reviews taken out of desperation saw the Pakistani team go through the motions to an irretrievable position on day two of the second Test. An innings defeat was inevitable when South Africa crossed the 500 mark in reply to Pakistan’s 99 abysmal runs in the first innings.

In an extremely gloomy picture often portrayed about Pakistan cricket, something seems to be amiss. As Test captain, Misbah-ul-Haq has a 45.83% win ratio, only second to Wasim Akram among captains who have skippered Pakistan over 20 Test matches. Before the twin tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe earlier this year, Misbah had lost just one Test match as captain in seventeen games including a white wash of the number one side in the world. An extremely good record by any measure of judgment but given the circumstances and resources at Misbah’s disposal, it was completely unexpected if not inconceivable.

Team Misbah lacks the spectacle of some of the previous Pakistani teams but continues the long tradition for surprising cricket fans, their opposition and at times, even themselves.

Yes, the flamboyance and swagger might have been missing from Pakistan’s cricket but they have replaced it with grit and perseverance. The likes of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq or even Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul are not surrounded by drooling women or fast cars like some of their more celebrated predecessors, but these pleasures hardly seem to be on their list of priority. They come from a generation where their country has dwindled into new levels of anarchical disorder. Pakistan has gotten itself into a position where resilience takes precedence over glamour; it’s the need of the hour.

The two men at the helm of this defiance and doggedness from Pakistan have been Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan could not have asked for better soldiers for the battle at hand. Cool, calm and collected, the two have the cleanest track records, on and off the field. They have utmost respect of their peers and the international cricket fraternity. They might not bring the wham bam bhangra to the floor but provide the viewing pleasure for those who enjoy the serenity of a slow ghazal.

Very few things in sport are as awe-inspiring as a Pakistani team setting a cricket ground on fire, and even fewer that are as painstaking as watching a Pakistani team disintegrate on that same field. Pakistan displayed varying degrees of cricketing brilliance and dispirited lethargy over the two Test matches against South Africa in UAE. In a series that could tragically not offer a grand finale, cricket was the biggest loser. The stakeholders of the sport have been robbed of the chance of witnessing the climax of a series that had the potential of going down as a classic.