Old Trafford Test, Day 3
Saturday, June 15, 2002 We're making quite a habit of these good days. On Thursday we set ourselves a target of 500, and we've managed it – despite Muralitharan bowling another 60 overs in the innings. It's the first time an England team has ever managed to score 500 in three consecutive innings, and we are very proud of our achievement.

Alec Stewart was magnificent once again and demonstrated that he really is one of the great batsmen in England's history. I thought he played Murali beautifully. I don't know what it is about Alec and milestone matches, but what I do know is that he loves batting at Old Trafford. His record here is second to none, a complete contrast to mine. I hate it here – my top score for Essex and England is about 30.

Ashley Giles chipped in with a useful knock as well, which was important for his confidence as he's been short of the odd run. In fact all the tailenders chipped in, even Hoggy and Caddick at the end. But there was never any thought of declaring once Alec was out. We'd have been quite happy to bat all day if we'd been able to.

I was reasonably happy with our position at the close, although there was a spell of fifteen overs or so when we bowled about as badly as we've been capable of recently. It's a pretty flat wicket, with only a hint of uneven bounce, but that doesn't excuse the bowlers from bowling both sides of the wicket.

And as for the no-balling, as a captain that infuriates me. I simply can't understand it, but once the problem starts there's no getting away from it. It becomes a virus. Clearly some of our guys are lacking rhythm and that needs to be sorted out with some extra work in the nets. It's simply not good enough.

Still, I thought Alex Tudor bowled an exceptional spell and he got his reward for sticking to the plan that he and I came up with. And 130 for 1 is effectively 130 for 2, as they've lost Marvan Atapattu with a broken finger, which is a big blow for them as he's a fine batsman, capable of sticking around for long periods.

That said, we've now lost Andrew Caddick for the rest of the match, which is a great pity. He's a tall, hit-the-deck bowler, and I was hoping that he'd be my man to exploit the uneven bounce as the match goes on. His problem is in the region between the intercostals and the left hip. As soon as it happened I asked him if he wanted to go off, but he's a tough competitor, and wanted to know for certain whether could continue or not. But one ball later, it was obvious he was in a lot of pain.

Obviously the day was dominated by the football, but we always knew that would be the case. We had no problem about starting at 12pm, half an hour before kick-off. The dressing room had plenty TVs in it, all with the sound turned down, although there were three loud cheers when the goals went in. Alec is a big footie fan, and was watching it on the big screen while he was in the middle.

It's been a great few days for sport in this country – we have to carry on giving it our best and keep the mood going.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Andrew Miller. His thoughts appear on Wisden.com, other duties permitting, at the end of each day of international cricket that England play.

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