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Captain Hayden leads the chase

Northants (282-5) bt Essex (281-6) by 5 wkts

On the day that thousands of Melburnians welcomed home their World Cup-winning side, one Australian had his own one-day celebration on English soil as he piloted Northamptonshire to victory with two overs to spare.

Matthew Hayden may have been found wanting over the years in his seven Tests and 13 one-day internationals, but here his quality was never in doubt, a level above anything the Essex attack could offer.

Hayden's 107 came off only 119 balls and his first hundred in this competition included 11 boundaries and one six. He displayed the timing and power which have always been his hallmark. Hayden gave one very hard chance on 21, a fierce pull which fellow Australian Stuart Law, at short midwicket, did well even to parry.

With David Sales, Hayden added 126 in 22 overs for the third wicket. Soon after passing his half century in 64 balls Sales was dismissed by a sharp catch close in by Nasser Hussain.

Hayden saved his real aggression for the latter part of his innings, his second fifty coming off only 39 balls. When Hayden was caught in the deep, Graeme Swann willingly took over the mantle and struck three sixes in 13 balls, virtually ensuring a Northants win before he too perished in the deep.

Hayden is captaining Northants for the coming two summers. With four championship hundreds already behind him it seems that after their leadership troubles in recent seasons the county have at last hit upon a man who might return a measure of success to Wantage Road.

This was a very batsman-friendly pitch, with only 11 wickets going down for 563 runs. After all the technicolour dress of recent World Cup weeks, it was difficult to adjust the eyes to the sight of players in whites.

Hussain may be on the threshold of the England captaincy but he dismissed all such speculation to concentrate solely on the outcome of this game.

The Essex captain did his bit, but having reached 38 off 52 balls, including seven fours, went to pull Kevin Curran and skied a catch to square leg.

Hussain said afterwards that he had considered 250 might be a winning score ``but we didn't bowl particularly well''.

Quizzed about how a captain should react to such an attack by the opposition batsmen, Hussain said: ``You ask people's advice, change your bowlers and hope it all comes up right. But it didn't this time.''

It was left to Ronnie Irani and Paul Grayson to add 151 in 25 overs. Then Danny Law took over with a late assault, hitting 23 off 11 balls at the end. He hit one six off the last ball of the innings and left another trapped on the roof of the new stand.