Trent Bridge Test, Day 5
Monday, August 12, 2002 We tried and tried, and stuck at it all the way through, and for a while there it looked as though it could have been Old Trafford revisited. But it was a very flat track, and there was no swing on the last day. Still, I'm very pleased. We continued our progress, and our young attack nearly bowled them out twice.

We can't dwell on decisions – we had a few that went our way as well. But that Dravid one could have been a turning point, but then again, so could any other moment later on. The bottom line is that India have got a lot of good batters, from Sehwag down to Laxman, and even Agarkar is coming into a bit of form these days. It was hard on this type of wicket, where there wasn't a lot of help for the bowlers, and if we missed out anywhere it was in the first innings. Losing Dominic Cork on the first day was crucial. He was picked to exploit the swinging conditions early on, but when he went in the knee, that allowed India to reach 350.

Michael Vaughan is going to dine out on that wicket for quite a while! It wasn't just that he bowled Sachin Tendulkar in a Test match, he did so with an absolute peach of a ball. In fact, that's a pretty good reason for me to pack it in pretty soon, so that I don't have to keep hearing about it …

To tell you the truth, it did spin more than I'd expected, but it's a very English reaction to say that Ashley Giles would have bowled the Indians out today. Conventional wisdom tells you that orthodox spinners don't pick up five wickets in an innings in England – even their world-class offspinner only managed three in the whole game, and they took him 50-odd overs to get.

Besides, if we had played Ashley here, I still don't know who we could have left out. On days one and two, while the ball was swinging, we needed Cork to pitch the ball up to the bat, then it was the batters' turn, and Craig White scored 94 not out to give us the lead. And Steve Harmison bowled really well on his debut … I simply don't know how we'd have fitted Giles in.

Harmison impressed me throughout. He bowled a fine spell at Dravid today, and improved throughout the match. He was a bit nervous in the first innings, and bowled a touch short, but once he grew in confidence, he began to kiss a length and found his control. I was very pleased.

It was an extraordinary match for edges – and gully was a big area for us. Balls kept going left, right, over, under … and eventually I thought, sod it, let's have three gullies and no slip. We weren't just going to run up and bowl in this innings – we had to try things differently and keep the Indians on their toes with unorthodox fields. It was a big disappointment that we didn't pick up a single catch there all game, after all the chances that flew that way.

I had a word for Parthiv Patel at the end, and I thought it was nice for the game of cricket, that we had our young gun twentysomething fast bowler bowling at their 17-year-old who looked more like 15. I was impressed with Parthiv, not just with his batting and keeping, but with the way he handled himself throughout – the pressure, the interviews. It's good for the game and it's good for Indian cricket.

Once we'd got them eight-down this evening, we were really going for it. That's why I kept Freddie [Flintoff] on the field, in spite of his groin strain. He was going to go in at No. 3, and it was going to be Old Trafford all over again. But at that stage, when you need eight, nine, ten runs an over, the opportunity goes so quickly, and all it took was three overs, down from 15 left to 12, for us to have no chance.

Away from the match, there was some very good news about central contracts, which are to be increased from 12 to 20. I'm very pleased that the counties have gone that way, and now the onus is on us to get to understand them better. We need to realise that they are a year-long thing, so that even when you are resting, you need to be working hard. But I think, allied with the Academy, the central contract system is going to be very important for English cricket.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Andrew Miller. His thoughts will appear on Wisden.com, other duties permitting, at the end of each day of England's international cricket this summer.

More Nasser Hussain
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Cork's loss was crucial

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