Match 2, Cuttack
Tuesday, January 22, 2002 Well, we've done what I'd hoped for, and won a tight one at last! Mind you, we aren't likely to win anything by a mile out here, so every game will have to be a close one. And it's our first big win of the tour - we beat India A, and we might have won the Test matches if luck had gone our way, but a real win is all important - this is a hectic schedule and days like this help to keep the squad tightly bonded.

We decided on the same batting line-up today, even though Graham Thorpe is fit again and available for selection. He's been really unfortunate in the last few weeks, but Duncan and I have to be fair to all the guys, and to leave Michael Vaughan out after just one game would not have proved anything. And as we saw, he took his chance well.

Paul Collingwood played a fine knock as well, and it was important that he was still there at the end. To lose both openers early was a blow, but myself, Vaughan and Collingwood put together some handy partnerships, with at least one of us batting at every stage of the innings. Obviously I would have taken 250, but 270 was what we wanted, and it was disappointing that, try as we might, we couldn't lift the run-rate above 5 an over at any stage. We are getting better at posting good scores - what we need now are really good scores.

Cuttack's a small ground, but the crowd are really on top of you. The noise out there today was unbelievable, and unsurprisingly there were a few run-outs on both sides. We had talked beforehand about using hand signals to communicate between the wickets, but that's not so easy when you've just used both hands to hit a ball through the covers. In the end a look and a nod had to do.

And we came up with a particularly cunning plan to get rid of Tendulkar! Seriously though, we've been playing well for a long time now, and we've earned a bit of luck.

India just kept coming at us today - Agarkar, Kumble, even Srinath can bat, and we must counter that with runs from our lower-middle order as well. It's a long road - the wheels might come off before it finishes, but it won't be for want of trying.

Our sleeping patterns are pretty messed up at the moment. We were just about over the jet-lag, then suddenly we're hit with day-night games followed by all-day games. Goughie's been on the sleeping tablets one day, then off them the next, and a couple of guys are still down with stomach upsets and the like. Today has been an especially long day - the ground is an hour-and-a-quarter away from our hotel, so we've just this minute got back from a twelve-hour round trip. It was a very nasty shock when the alarm went off at 6am this morning, I can tell you!

So tomorrow, it's a quick dip in the pool, then back on a plane to Madras.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Andrew Miller. His thoughts will appear on Wisden.com throughout the one-day series.

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