Ashes Memories Part 2 - Hussain's Day

I was never a huge fan of Nasser Hussain. He was never at home with the media, captained his sides with an apparently unfriendly, autocratic yet very professional style and wasn't exactly an entertainer on the pitch yet he proved to be a highly effective batsman and skipper at county and international level.

One of his greatest moments with the bat came in the First Test of the 1997 Ashes series at Edgbaston. Australia had a formidable line-up. Captain Mark Taylor could call on the likes of Elliott, Ponting and both Waugh brothers, while McGrath and Warne were both in their bowling prime. England traditionally starts their summers in disappointing style but this one bucked the trend.

Australia won the toss, elected to bat yet soon found themselves at 28-4, then 54-8. Fortunately for them, Shane Warne went on the attack and scored more runs than the top six batsmen put together. Still, 118 all out was hardly a good start to an Ashes series! Andrew Caddick had taken 5-50.

Wickets continued to tumble when England came in to bat. Openers Butcher (on his debut) and Atherton were both out in single-figures but when Graham Thorpe joined Hussain with the score at 50-3, the home side's fortunes changed. They put on 288 together and Nasser persevered until late on Day 2 when he was finally caught behind off Warne for 210. It remains his highest ever first-class innings, and what a good time to make it! England declared just at 478-9 with a huge first innings lead.

Of course, Aussies don't give up that easily, and skipper Mark Taylor produced one of his epics, a 6 1/2-hour 129, helped by Elliott's 66 and a century by Blewett. Robert Croft took all three wickets and, when Mark Ealham polished off the tail, it left his team only 118 to win. There was to be no Botham-esque dramatic rescue for the Australians and England rattled off the runs for the loss of only one wicket.

Alas for England, they didn't win the series. Hussain did score another hundred but the side was crushed in the third, fourth and fifth Tests. By the time The Oval came around, the Ashes were lost. However, Phil Tufnell's finest hour with the ball secured a low-scoring victory to allow a little self-confidence to be regained.

Hussain, of course, went on to become one of England's most successful captains, winning 17 out of 45 Tests in charge. His record with the bat doesn't match that of, say, Gower, Stewart or Gooch, but 5,764 runs at 37.18 isn't that bad but his spiky attitude galvanized England when at a low ebb until things started to go wrong in 2003-4. Arguably he lost the dressing room and held onto the reins longer than some may have liked (read Marcus Trescothick's autobiography from an insider's perspective). Then, in May 2004 after scoring a match-winning century against New Zealand, he surprised everybody by announcing his immediate retirement not only from Tests but also from all forms of first-class cricket. He had been a stalwart of Essex, too, and could easily have continued beyond the age of 36. Not an entertainer but a good servant to English cricket and one who should be remembered in the latest Ashes summer.