Wellington Test, Day 5
Monday, March 25, 2002

Everything went to plan today for a while, but in the end it was obviously slightly disappointing because we couldn't get them out. But we were on top in the match, and played most of the cricket in it. We bowled all right, but I thought the ball would turn much more than it did – the only time it did go was when it was pitched in the rough outside leg stump, where there was a huge bunker.

We were always going to send Freddie Flintoff in early, and it came off today. Actually he put us ahead of our target – before play started we thought we'd set them something around 350 in 75 overs, and it became more like 350 in 90 after Fred's little onslaught.

The other thing was that for some reason the ball didn't start reverse-swinging until late on, either. In the first innings it started reversing after about 40 overs, and that's when Andy Caddick bowled so well. This time I was standing next to Tres [Marcus Trescothick] in the slips and kept asking him if it was reversing yet, and he kept on saying no.

It didn't start going until around the 60th over, actually, and that's when I whipped Matthew Hoggard back on, and he got a couple of wickets. He needs the ball to swing – when it's going gunbarrel-straight as it was then bowlers like Flintoff and Caddick are going to be more dangerous.

People go on and on about the left-arm spinner bowling round the wicket, like Ashley Giles did today for much of the time. But the fact is that only one wicket fell to a spinner bowling round the wicket – Vettori didn't get one – and the only turn was out of the big hole outside leg stump, so over the wicket was the obvious line. I'm not going to start telling someone to bowl round the wicket just because that's the way it used to be done years ago. It defies belief really that people get so worked up about it.

Stephen Fleming was obviously playing for his team in his long innings. He was helped by the fact that it wasn't turning or swinging much – he had a bit more trouble when it started reversing later on. Obviously it was disappointing that we dropped him behind when he only had 1, but Fossie [James Foster] has had a pretty good series on the whole – he's scored some runs and kept well. He's still young and we have to stick with him.

At the end I had a bit of fun with Graham Thorpe. He'd been going on about how he bowls a bit like Nathan Astle, and how he might suit this sort of wicket. So when Astle came in I told Thorpey he could have a bowl, and he bottled it. All talk and no trousers.

Now we've got four days off before the final Test, and I for one certainly need it after the events of the past few days. I'm going to do nothing much – maybe play a bit of golf, and we do have a couple of meetings planned with David Graveney. But that's about it.

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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