Pakistan v England, 2011-12

A little over two months after three Pakistani players were imprisoned for spot-fixing during their previous Test against England, at Lord's in August 2010, the sides met at the neutral venue of the Dubai Sports City Stadium. But the impressive, if sterile, ground did not preside over neutral cricket - at least not from the Pakistanis, who immediately located top gear to despatch England inside three days.

If the meeting of these teams, with their history of volatility, was always likely to be unpredictable, few could have foreseen the drubbing suffered by England in their first Test since officially becoming the world's No. 1 side. To lose by ten wickets was bad enough; to do so after your captain had won the toss, and the pitch offered only moderate assistance to the bowlers, was difficult to credit.

The England attack, it's true, performed manfully, but the haplessness of the batsmen, who - for only the third time in a Test since the 2006-07 Ashes - were dismissed twice for under 200, meant their efforts were wasted. And central to the demise was Saeed Ajmal, whose jerky mix of doosras and off-breaks brought him match figures of ten for 97, the best by a Pakistani against England for over 24 years.

During the tea interval on the first day - not long before England were dismissed for 192, itself something of a recovery from 43 for five - Bob Willis, summarising for Sky TV in their London studio, threatened to turn the match into a battle of the bent elbow. It was a prompt the British media took up with glee: no sooner had Ajmal completed career-best figures of seven for 55 than his action became the story.

Willis was a professional cricketer from 1969 to 1984, an age intolerant of bowlers with noticeable snap at the point of delivery. His doubts over the legitimacy of Ajmal's action would have been echoed by many from his era, but the change to the playing conditions in 2005, when the ICC sanctioned flexion of up to 15 degrees, was more significant.

It helped to fan the flames that Ajmal had been reported for a suspect action in 2009 by Billy Bowden, one of the on-field umpires in this Test. Bowden had aired his misgivings during a one-day international against Australia, though Ajmal was cleared on that occasion by experts in human movement at the University of Western Australia. According to their findings, made in controlled laboratory conditions by Professor Bruce Elliott, Ajmal's bowling arm had 23 degrees of flex at the elbow when it was horizontal - but it straightened by only ten degrees when he bowled his off-break, and by seven with his doosra or quicker ball.

Just in case England had been fussing over their protractors, Ajmal and his captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, also planted the possibility of a new mystery delivery, the teesra - or third one. If it did exist, other than as a deliberate distraction in the build-up to the match, Ajmal didn't need to harness it: only Trott and Prior appeared able to pick even the standard variations in his arsenal.

Pakistan's retort was an opening stand of 114 between Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar, though that belied the stoic efforts of Broad and Anderson. With England opting for just one specialist spinner (Tremlett was preferred to Monty Panesar), they had to rotate their three seamers. As Swann's foils, they ran in bravely and - with a little help from Trott, who trapped Younis Khan with a vicious nip-backer - they managed to dismiss Pakistan for 338. Their lead was 146, but England knew it could have been worse.

In the event, any vague sense of relief was fleeting. With their second-innings anxieties focused on Ajmal, England appeared to forget that Umar Gul was no slouch either. Charging in from the Southern End, he dismissed Strauss, Cook and Pietersen in his opening spell - though there was enough doubt over Strauss's dismissal, caught down the leg side by Adnan Akmal, for him to review it and, later, for Andy Flower to complain to the match referee.

But Gul's strikes left England's shaky middle order to confront Ajmal and Rehman. And while the pitch held true, resistance - apart from Trott's 49 and another cameo from Swann - was token as the spinners shared six wickets. Trott's efforts at least meant Pakistan needed to bat again, but not for long. Soon after, England were wallowing in their first defeat in ten Tests, since Perth in 2010-11, and their first inside three days since being ambushed by Australia at Headingley in 2009. In those series, England would hold their nerve. Out in the UAE, things were about to get a whole lot worse.

Man of the Match: Saeed Ajmal.
Close of play: first day, Pakistan 42-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 22, Taufeeq Umar 18); second day, Pakistan 288-7 (Adnan Akmal 24).