Rest of the World (440 and 156 for 4) beat England (292 and 302) by 6 wickets, and go 1-0 up in series
scorecard

In the first match of the Wisden fantasy Test series, played at Lord's, the World XI came out on top despite an heroic performance by Len Hutton, who carried his bat through England's first innings and was last out in the second, scoring a century both times. But England's batsmen were outdone for consistency. Adam Gilchrist chipped in with a typically hard-hit 95 not out in the first innings, to stretch the World XI's lead to 148, and that proved vital in the end.

Peter May won the toss and decided to bat, even though the prospect of Malcolm Marshall and Dennis Lillee with the new ball was a daunting one. Both Graham Gooch and Ted Dexter perished to outfield catches, but then Hutton and May settled in. They put on 153 before May chipped one master spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, to another, Shane Warne.

At 256 for 4 England were on top, but then Warne had Ian Botham caught behind, to start a collapse in which the last six wickets disappeared for 36. Marshall, with the second new ball, was too much for the tail, and finished with 5 for 46. He also rapped Brian Statham on the glove, which meant that Statham missed the start of the World XI's innings and couldn't resume his famous new-ball partnership with Fred Trueman.

Hutton remained defiant throughout, rarely deigning to attack. He finished with 129 not out, and hit 11 fours, in a display reminiscent of The Oval 1950 (against West Indies) and Adelaide the following winter, when he also carried his bat through a Test innings.

The World XI's batting line-up was a powerful one, but their total never threatened to get out of hand as England made regular inroads. The best batting came from the modern masters Brian Lara (75) and Sachin Tendulkar (59), who put on 104 after Viv Richards had bludgeoned a rapid 85, with 12 fours and a towering six off his old mate Botham. Statham and Derek Underwood, with four wickets apiece, were the pick of the bowlers.

Honours were roughly even until Gilchrist's onslaught, which included eight fours and three massive sixes. Hutton dropped anchor once more when England resumed, and only three wickets were lost in clearing the arrears. For long periods the crowd was mesmerised as the spin twins whirred in from either end – Murali with his back to the pavilion, and Warne from the Nursery end. What England really needed was a repeat of the May-Cowdrey heroics of Edgbaston 1957, when they blunted the mystery spin of Sonny Ramadhin ... but Marshall had May caught at slip, and Warne eventually accounted for Cowdrey for an elegant 63.

Hutton and Cowdrey had put on 135, but now the spinners detonated another demolition. Botham, Underwood and Trueman all made ducks, and Warne also dismissed Alan Knott for 5 and Jim Laker for 1. Statham helped Hutton add 34 for the last wicket, extending the overall lead to 154. Hutton was last out for 136, from 393 balls. He stroked 12 fours and, late on, a six. In all he batted for more than 17 hours in the match. Warne and Muralitharan shared nine of the wickets.

Trueman and Statham disposed of the unrelated Richardses, and when Lara and Tendulkar also fell England had a sniff of a famous victory. But Sunil Gavaskar and Garry Sobers stopped the rot, and took their side home by six wickets to clinch a 1-0 series lead. England rued their miserable late-order batting in both innings: another 50 runs would have tested the World XI severely on a wearing pitch.

The teams moved to Barbados for the second Test at Bridgetown (report tomorrow).

This series was played using a computer simulation devised for Wisden.com by Y Ananth Narayanan of Hallmark Software in Bangalore, India.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd