Wednesday, January 23, 2002 There was a real pinch-yourself moment for England at Cuttack yesterday. Hemang Badani slogged to mid-on and India were a sickly 147 for 6, still 100 runs adrift and in the sort of doomed position England know so well. You sensed it was a big dismissal because immediately after taking the catch, Andrew Flintoff sent the ball spiralling back into the ether with one of those railway sleepers he wears on his feet. India rallied (of course they did), but England's 16-run win felt like another notch on Nasser's bedpost.

A glance at England's recent one-day record confirmed the suspicion: it was the first time they had successfully defended a total against a side not beginning with Z since April 1999, when they beat Pakistan in a meaningless group match at Sharjah, 44 games ago. As that victory soon fell under the match-fixing spotlight, you could argue that the sequence of shame actually goes back to January 1999, when Mark Ealham inspired England to crush Sri Lanka at Perth. That was 51 games ago, which is only five fewer than the number of one-day caps won by Hussain.

Basil Fawlty would call it a statement of the bleedin' obvious, but there are two ways of winning a one-dayer: you either chase a total or you defend it. When chasing, England still have a lot to learn, as the post-Trescothick Calcutta collapse showed. As defenders, they have been plain hopeless, partly through lack of opportunity: in the 50 games since that Perth win, England have batted first just 17 times, and manged a pathetic four victories, three against Zimbabwe plus the dodgy Sharjah result. No practice makes imperfect, which is why the Cuttack result was so significant.

Which is not to say that England have cracked the art of defending. Yesterday India were both unlucky (see Sachin Tendulkar) and inept (see VVS Laxman and Dinesh Mongia), but they still managed to give England a fright. Twice the door looked bolted, twice India prised it open: first Ajay Ratra and Ajit Agarkar added 32 in 33 balls, then Agarkar and Anil Kumble put on 39 in 39. Better bowling sides would have turned India's 147 for 6 into 170 all out; England kept going for the jugular only to apply the sticking plaster. Hussain's next challenge is to land the knockout punch.

At Cuttack that was precisely what he failed to do. After the crucial dismissal of Badani, the situation cried out for the return of Flintoff, whose back-of-a-length strategy, particularly against the left-handers, had been exemplary: his first spell read 5-0-9-0 and that was unflattering. Instead Hussain stuck with the hittable Ben Hollioake and Paul Collingwood, which allowed Ratra and Agarkar to give India a fighting chance. When Flintoff finally returned, the score was 179 for 6 and mild panic was setting in: he promptly removed Ratra leg-before with his first ball, which was a moment Hussain won't forget.

It's harsh to quibble, especially as this was England's first one-day win against a decent side since Flintoff went ballistic at Karachi 15 months ago. But now Nasser has four games left to win some tosses, bat first and practise putting India under pressure. Bleedin' obvious perhaps, but only then will we really know how far England have come.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com. His English Angle appears on Wednesdays.

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