Christchurch Test, Day 3
Friday, March 15, 2002

Well, that was a very good day for us. The wicket is changing from session to session, but Graham Thorpe and Andy Flintoff have come up with one of the best partnerships I've ever seen when the pitch has been doing a little. We've had three fantastic days, and now we've got to dig in and win it.

The ball swung about a bit early on, and I thought Drum bowled well. We were a bit clumsy with wickets – Butch's hit-wicket was unfortunate. But then Thorpey and Freddie came along, and they batted so positively, going along at five or six an over.

Fred's innings just shows what practice can do. We all know that he's had a bad trot with the bat, but he has bowled his heart out on this tour. That's the thing about being an allrounder – if you fall short in one area you can make it up in the other. And he's worked really hard – hard in the gym and hard in the nets. He's a hugely popular member of the team, and this innings was great news.

And Thorpe's 200 was also a fantastic innings, albeit on a wicket that's getting better. The man on the PA said it was the third-fastest double-century in Tests, which is an amazing effort for a little bloke. The announcer has been very good here, so we knew all about that and that their big stand was an overall record for England. Recently all the announcements have usually been about records against us, so it was nice to make some headlines of our own for a change!

It was a difficult declaration to time, because the wicket has got flatter and better over the three days, which is obviously unusual. And as I've said before, with a drop-in pitch like this one there's no history to go on – you know if you're at Headingley that it will seam on the last day, or that it will turn at Ahmedabad, but when you're talking about a pitch that was dropped in three days before the match starts you haven't got any idea.

I also wanted to make sure we had a reasonably new ball for the morning, because that's when it has moved around the most. Actually the ball will be newer than I expected, because we went off early when the shadows came across the pitch. I expect some people will be saying that cricketers are pansies or something, because we came off when it was sunny, but we all knew it would happen because they have built this huge stand which blocks out the sun at 6 o'clock, and you can't bat properly then. The lights don't have any effect in that situation, with a red ball.

We've got two days to bowl them out, which should be enough. There doesn't seem to be much turn, except out of the rough of the bowlers' footmarks. The weather forecast is good for tomorrow, although there are a few showers predicted for Sunday. But you can't base your declarations around the weather.

So now we have to change the mentality a bit and sit in there and work for wickets. We've played the positive attacking cricket in this match – today we scored over 400 runs in what was less than a full day's batting. I expect the pitch will flatten out a bit more, so we'll have to work at it and not panic.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Steven Lynch. His thoughts will appear on Wisden.com, other duties permitting, at the end of each day of the Test series.

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