India's bowling and fielding made the difference: Misbah

New Delhi - Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq said it was fine bowling and superb fielding by India that prevented his team from making a clean-sweep of the series in the third and final One-Day International (ODI) at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Sunday.

“We had a golden chance for a whitewash but we have to give credit to the Indian fielders and bowlers. They were brilliant in the field and saved 35 runs, which cost us the match,” said Misbah, after India pulled off an unlikely win while defending a paltry total of 167.

Misbah said it was not an easy track to bat on.

“It wasn’t easy to score on this pitch, it even got difficult to survive. At first, we thought the pitch was a batting track but the weather played tricks. We didn’t expect so much moisture on the pitch. We tried to see off the new ball but the ball was doing things even after that. Due to the weather it was hard to determine how the pitch would behave,” he said.

Misbah was all praise for Mohammed Hafeez, who struck a fighting 21 despite an injured finger.

“Hafeez injured his hand and that’s why he came down the order. It was a heroic performance from him. All the pitches where we have played in India have been bowling tracks. Besides (Nasir) Jamshed and (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni no other batsman has been able to score runs,” he said.

Asked out the positives from the series, Misbah said: “It was a great series, tightly contested and today we had another tight game. Plenty of positives from this series, specially the fast bowlers and Nasir Jamshed.”

Jamshed, who struck two consecutive centuries in the series to be named the man of the series, also said that it was tough to score.

“I started well today, but unfortunately didn’t last till the end. The pitch was difficult to score in the second innings. Thanks to the crowd, it has been great series,” he said.