England collapsed to 72 all out against Pakistan to lose the second Test and the three-match series.

It was the tourists’ lowest ever Test total against their ‘hosts’.

The world number one side needed to make only 145 to win on day four at the Zayed Stadium but had no answer to Abdur Rehman, who claimed a maiden five-wicket haul.

No one was able to resist Rehman (six for 25) for long, and Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez piled on the pressure too as England were bowled out in just 36.1 overs – all but three delivered by spinners.

Andrew Strauss’ team will therefore be playing only for pride and damage limitation to their International Cricket Council ranking in Dubai next week.

After Monty Panesar’s six for 62 had helped to bowl Pakistan out for 214, England’s top order soon got in a messy tangle.

Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan all went in 22 overs of tortured batting before tea – and the rest followed in less than 15 more as England failed to chase a target as low as this for only the second time in 100 years.

They were mighty lucky too not to be minus captain Strauss for half the 32 he eventually managed, following a third-umpire ruling which surprisingly reprieved him on a bat-pad decision.

Strauss said afterwards: “I wish I could explain it. Ultimately it was about very good bowling from both ends, applying pressure, making it hard for us to score and maybe we didn’t take as may good options as we should have done.

“We’ll have some regrets about that but it was an outstanding game of cricket. We came up short, but ultimately you’ve got to congratulate Pakistan. They were outstanding.”