Unflappable captain leads by example

CRICKET: Nasser Hussain, as much as any England cricketer of his generation, thrives on adversity. Give him a point to prove and he will move heaven and earth to do it.

Present an irretrievable situation and he will endeavour to claw it back somehow. He is stubborn, aggressive, sharp as a razor and volatile. And he can bat. His century yesterday, the 11th of his Test career and his third at Lord's, helped rescue England from a position of possible collapse to one of considerable strength by the close of the opening day of what promises to be a wonderfully competitive series.

The England captain will resume his innings on 120 this morning, a chance-less effort containing 20 boundaries, and with Alec Stewart, in his record-breaking 119th Test, he will be hoping to extend a satisfactory 257 for four - slow going by the heady standard of the modern age but an absorbing contest nonetheless - to somewhere around the 500 mark.

Each and every one of Hussain's last four centuries for England has been made in trying circumstances.Yesterday, England had lost Michael Vaughan, indisputably lbw without scoring, in the second over of the day when Hussain arrived at the crease. When, shortly after lunch, England were 78 for three, Mark Butcher having been caught at short-leg and Graham Thorpe bowled, he had made only 37.

A couple of wickets then and India, might well have restored the balance from losing the toss by running through the rest of the England order.

Instead Hussain, in one of his most composed innings, and John Crawley, given a further chance to resurrect his own career because of the injury to Marcus Trescothick, compiled a fourth-wicket partnership of 145, before the Hampshire batsman played a loose flick outside off-stump to be beautifully caught low down by Rahul Dravid at slip for 64.

Stewart arrived to a standing ovation and in a little more than an hour of diligent batting - including eight overs of the second new ball - he had made 19.

Hussain was made to work extremely hard at the outset, first of all by the left-arm pace attack of Ashish Nehra and, in particular, Zaheer Khan - whose genuine pace, inswing and movement down the Lord's slope had accounted for the shuffling Vaughan in his first over - and then by Anil Kumble, who wheeled away relentlessly from the Nursery End until the batsmen began to dominate as he tired.

Some players can make batting look easy but Hussain, for his first 50 or so runs, made a difficult business look precisely that.His second 50, though, was altogether more brisk, from 64 as opposed to 128 balls, exemplified by the two boundaries off Kumble - the first clumped over wide long-on from down the pitch and the second cuffed away through point as the bowler over-compensated and dropped short - that raced him through to 99.

The single, clipped to fine-leg, that took him to three figures was followed by an acknowledgement of the applause as restrained as it had been manic in the one-day international final against the same opposition on this ground a fortnight ago. On that occasion adrenalin had got the better of him. This time he just looked knackered.

Guardian Service

ENGLAND - FIRST INNINGS

M A Butcher c Jaffer b Kumble 29

M P Vaughan lbw b Khan 0

N Hussain not out 120

G P Thorpe b Khan 4

J P Crawley c Dravid b Sehwag 64

A J Stewart not out 19

Extras (b3, lb10, w1, nb7, pens 0) 21

Total (4 wkts, 90 overs) 257

Fall: 1-0 2-71 3-78 4-223 To Bat: A Flintoff, C White, A F Giles, M J Hoggard, S P Jones.

Bowling: Nehra 20-3-48-0, Khan 22-7-53-2, Agarkar 12-2-49-0, Kumble 27-8-61-1, Ganguly 3-1-16-0, Sehwag 6-0-17-1.

Umpires: R E Koertzen and R B Tiffin