Close England 370 for 5 (Trescothick 60, Hussain 70 ret, Ramprakash 58*, White 79*). Mumbai Cricket Association President's XI 373 for 5 (Kambli 109). Match drawn
Scorecard

England banished the first-day blues at the Wankhede Stadium today as they laid into the Mumbai attack with a mixture of the velvet glove, the garden trowel and the wooden club. Marcus Trescothick, Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash all made fifties, and then there was Craig White. The same Craig White who hummed and hawed about coming to India, whose back and knee have hamstrung him for most of the past six months. You would never have known it today, as 58 of his 79 runs came in boundaries.

White is a confidence player so this innings will be honey both to him and Duncan Fletcher. He came in with Ramprakash straight after tea when Hussain and Graham Thorpe retired unhurt. He went on a spree against Nilesh Kulkarni, who had the worst of days, dropping two catches and conceding 138 runs, 24 of them to White in one over: the pretty cadence went 6, 4, 6, 2, 6.

But it wasn't just the Craig White story. The morning session had belonged to Marcus Trescothick, who treated the Bombay fielders as if they were his toy soldiers in his bedroom. Trescothick put on 89 in his first opening stand with his new partner Mark Butcher, who, Fletcher later confirmed, is inked in to open in the Tests. Both are left-handers, but that has not been a problem for Hayden and Langer of Australia, or for Trescothick himself opening with Nick Knight in Zimbabwe.

The spinners caused a few problems early on as England's footwork creaked into action after their autumn hibernation - Trescothick was nearly yorked by Powar in the 15th over and Butcher nearly bowled round his legs by Kulkarni in the 16th. But soon Trescothick, who feels he has honed his technique against spin in the past year, was thudding along as usual. He brought his 50 up (off 65 balls) with a huge straight-drive for six and was so pleased with the effect he repeated the shot next ball.

But maybe the heat got to him - he was still encased in his armour helmet despite the baking sunshine, and he tried one big hit too many. A leg-side heave off Powar ballooned into the stratosphere and was caught by Vinod Kambli at midwicket (89 for 1).

Michael Vaughan fell soon afterwards for two, getting an edge to one that turned from Kalkarni which was well taken by the wicketkeeper, Abhijit Shetye. He was the only failure in England's top seven (91 for 2)

The crowd didn't care one jot, they only wanted to see Hussain. Clad in his England cap and as British as cucumber sandwiches, he was greeted by a lion's roar and responded in kind. Two fours and a lofted off drive later, it was time for lunch. By the time he retired, at the next interval, Hussain had hit the corrugated roof with an enormous lofted on-drive and lifted the spirits of the team. He had also run out Butcher, for 33, calling him back for a second run that was never there (121 for 3).

Graham Thorpe nurdled his way to 45, looking as serene as he always does in the sunshine, white-hatted like one of the brothers from Beau Geste. After tea, his role as anchor went to Mark Ramprakash, who played some cover drives of chocolatey velvetiness. His partnership with White rattled up 138 runs in 28 overs, and yesterday's sweaty nightmare was forgotten.

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole England tour of India for Wisden.com.

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