Edgbaston Test, Day 2
Friday, May 31, 2002 To be perfectly honest, that was a bloody good day. We took on a world-class spinner, and a fine reverse-swing bowler, and rattled up a score of 400. I am very pleased indeed.

As for Marcus, what more can I say? Ever since he came into the side, I have never had one iota of doubt about his ability. He has the talent to become one of the finest England cricketers of all time, and with Michael Vaughan as well, our top-order is in very safe hands indeed.

Marcus's innings was a different type of knock to some of those he played on the subcontinent. In Asia – where the ball keeps lower – it's more difficult to hit down the ground, so flat-batted shots are going to get you the bulk of your runs. But here in England the ball skids onto the bat nicely, so it's easier and safer to hit straight down the ground. It was only later in the day, when Tresco's eye was really in, that he started to sweep the bowling. That just goes to show how adaptable he is.

Butch played a great knock as well, at a really crucial time for us. It's a great wicket for batting, but after tea the reverse-swing kicked in, Murali got a bit of turn off the wicket, and the conditions were at their very best for the Sri Lankan type of bowling. Our batting card may look heavily weighted towards the top of the order, but that last session was the most difficult of the day. The contributions everyone made, right down to Thorpe and Flintoff at the end, were just as pleasing as the earlier efforts.

Butch was disappointed not to reach his century, but that ball … obviously my first reaction was it was a mirror-image of Shane Warne's [Gatting, Old Trafford 1993]. But Butch realises he could have kicked it away. Mind you, having said that, that method didn't exactly help me!

It's the angles Murali gets: that's the killer. As a batsman, you train the brain to face one type of spinner, then along he comes and changes the whole complexion. But it's all good fun facing Murali – the man's a genius and it's a great challenge.

Obviously, the World Cup has started now, but we don't really see it as a competition for the back pages. England has always had great coverage for cricket, and I don't see that changing now – come good days like today or bad days, there are always a lot of pages to fill.

We've got a lot of footie fanatics in the dressing-room. Everyone loves an underdog, so it kept us all entertained in the lunch break when Senegal took the lead against France. Alex Tudor came out with a pretty dumb comment – "This'll be a bit of an upset …" Well, Tudes, you don't say!

In fact, I have to admit … we wouldn't mind just a little bit of rain on Sunday morning …

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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