Cricinfo





 





Live Scorecards
Fixtures - Results






England v Pakistan
Top End Series
Stanford 20/20
Twenty20 Cup
ICC Intercontinental Cup





News Index
Photo Index



Women's Cricket
ICC
Rankings/Ratings



Match/series archive
Statsguru
Players/Officials
Grounds
Records
All Today's Yesterdays









Cricinfo Magazine
The Wisden Cricketer

Wisden Almanack



Reviews
Betting
Travel
Games
Cricket Manager







The tone-setter
Wisden CricInfo staff - July 25, 2002

Nasser Hussain's 120 not out was his 11th Test century - and the fifth he's made in the England's first innings of a series. More importantly, three of the first four came in victories - including 128 against India on their last tour here, in 1996, and a brilliant 106 on a sticky Christchurch wicket last winter. Hussain has assumed Mike Atherton's mantle as England's premier tone-setter. Our graph shows where Hussain scored his runs. He was at his most productive when the Indians pitched the ball up, and one flip through midwicket around his front pad evoked Viv Richards. He was especially harsh on his opposite number Sourav Ganguly, cuffing him for 15 off 13 balls.

Hussain scratched around a bit at first. Before lunch he was in control of just 70% of his strokes, but between lunch and tea that inched up to 81% as he and John Crawley opened their shoulders and took charge. He also continued the remarkable run of form of England's No. 3 batsman. The position used to be a bit of a poisoned chalice, but Hussain's hundred followed innings of 105, 94 and 123 by Mark Butcher in the Sri Lanka series. Then there was Hussain's hundred in the NatWest Series final on this ground. At least he didn't point to his back this time.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd