Pakistan, but not as we know them

Bob Woolmer congratulates Shoaib Akhtar © AFP

And what a celebration it was. Just take a little time, breathe, and take it in again. Not just what happened today - that might require a different set of lungs - but what Pakistan, by winning this series, have just done.

Foreign context we were familiar with; this was the England of Flintoff, Vaughan, Harmison and Pietersen. This was the England that, having won six series in a row, arrived here boasting the biggest scalp of them all, Australia. This was the England, if not the best team in the world, then certainly the most improved over the last few years.

Local perspective was also no secret; this was an improving Pakistan, a work in progress. This was a Pakistan shorn of big names - and in fact averse to them - but with an evident spine. This was a Pakistan that hadn't won a Test series for two years.

Both circumstances, with this result, now change irrevocably. Where England go from here is uncertain but for Pakistan, as Bob Woolmer admitted afterwards, this is a milestone result. In light of the magical nature of both wins - conjured as if from nothing but the dust and smog that envelops Multan and Lahore - and the identity of the opponent, it is tempting to imagine that the mercurial Pakistan of the late 80s and early 90s is back. Are they?

The identities are different but so too are the modes of operation. Through this series, through the last year, Pakistan have done nothing if not scrap. They have rarely been able to call on sprinklings of genius - their captain apart - to bail them out. As a unit they have only hung on, scratched away and eked out results. Here they have hung on and then grown to assert themselves. If at Faisalabad they didn't believe they could finish it, that belief came here; at first through Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, inevitably through Inzamam and eventually through the bowlers. It has often been said but it demands repeating; the communal nature of their progress is critical. It is precisely why this result is so important. Built on sturdier foundations than eras past, it could conceivably lead to a sustained pursuit of excellence rather than the erratic, faction-driven pursuit that held us in awe.

'Absurd fields greeted the batsmen, Danish Kaneria became loopier, sharper, a bigger schemer' © AFP

Now, bring in the other set of lungs, for what happened in just over 12 overs after lunch today. Locals used to it can only sense it but it is a mentality that in Pakistan teams hasn't changed over time. When asked what his lunchtime talk was to the players after England had negotiated the morning without losing a wicket, Inzamam said he told the team to get him just one wicket. This is the crux of the team's psyche: when they do get one, as happened four balls after lunch, they are a side transformed.

Then they sniff, they hound, they corner, they toy and they pounce - not unlike a pack of wolves. As soon as Kaneria struck, he sensed it, Shoaib sensed it, the team sensed it and so did we. Absurd fields greeted the batsmen, Kaneria became loopier, sharper, a bigger schemer. Shoaib quickened, honed in, became rawer yet ruthless. In Multan, Kaneria snared two in one over to set up the kill; here he took two in two balls to tease out England's heart and but for Darrell Hair, would have made it a hat-trick. As in Multan, Shoaib cleaned up.

Perhaps indicative of the changed feel of this team is the tools they used and have done throughout the series. England lost eight wickets for 47 runs and not a reverse swinging yorker was speared at them. Kaneria's googly, despite the attention it has received, remained admirably shrouded and effective through the series and in Flintoff, he found a suitably starry victim. Shoaib's methods were also instructive. Some of his 17 victims in the series were predictably yorker-induced, but the highlight - Flintoff again at Faisalabad - was conventionally unplayable, on a good length, nipping in and ferocious. And having done all but take a wicket with a deceptively-flighted and wickedly-targeted slower ball until now, suddenly he picked up three in Lahore.

So are Pakistan now back? After the divisiveness of the late 1990s, culminating in the post-World Cup 2003 cull, through Inzamam's ascent to leadership, through Woolmer's appointment - are they once again a team to be wary of, to fear? On a day such as we witnessed at Gaddafi Stadium today, with a little more conviction this time, we can say yes this is Pakistan. But not, we should swiftly add, as we have known them.