In his latest exclusive diary entry for CricInfo, England's senior player pays tribute to his county colleague Mark Butcher for the innings which won England the fourth Test at Headingley. Reflecting on the game, he assesses his own contibution, which included his best score for England this summer.

Firstly, full credit to Adam Gilchrist for his declaration. Australia were looking for a "greenwash", so they chose the attacking option. It made for a magical day's cricket on day five, and I'm very, very pleased that England won. We've ended our four-match losing streak, and we've got the chance to make the final scoreline look better at The Oval. I've always said that we should make a judgement on our form over the past 18 months at the end of this series, and that's what we'll be able to do in a week's time.

Fantastic though yesterday's win was, it shouldn't obscure the fact that our performance at Headingley was patchy, and we'll be looking to improve on it at The Oval. On Thursday we played as badly as I can remember in recent times – our performance in the field simply didn't come up to scratch. It got better on Friday, and it was good to see Goughie take five in front of his home crowd. With its uneven bounce, the pitch was always easier to bowl on with a new ball – it was dry on top, but damp underneath. As the ball got older, batting became easier.

I wrote here before the game that I wasn't too happy about being asked to bat at seven. I'm afraid that after Saturday they'll be asking me to do it again! My partnership with Mark Ramprakash was vital in enabling us to avoid the follow-on. While Mark was in I batted as I normally do, but once he and Alex Tudor had gone, I decided it was time to take a gamble. Some of the strokes you saw weren't quite out of the coaching manual, but I must say it was very pleasing to hit Glenn McGrath over extra cover for six. He's the world's number one bowler in my view, so that's a moment I'll remember for a while.

As it turned out, my batting services in the second innings weren't required! Mark Butcher's innings was quite extraordinary. I've known Mark for a long time – I remember earlier days at Surrey when he and his brother Gary turned up at The Oval as youngsters with father Alan, and his innings on Monday was the best I've ever seen him play. He's always looked like a Test player, and the irony is that but for injuries he probably wouldn't have played in this series at all. Like Marcus Trescothick last summer, he took his chance well. In the past he's often got into the forties without going on to a really big score, but this was the innings of his life.

Looking ahead to The Oval, there are two spinners in the squad – Robert Croft and Philip Tufnell, and we can expect one of them to play. I've not seen Tuffers bowl a ball since his last Test match, but he's obviously forced his way back into the squad by taking a hatful of wickets for Middlesex.

Looking further ahead, I wrote here last week that I'm hoping to play first-class cricket for at least another two years. I've also had discussions with David Graveney and Duncan Fletcher about my future plans. The squad for India's due to be announced in a week's time – watch this space for further news!

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