Hussain answers England's emergency call

England 257-4 v India

With a need for someone to stand up and be counted as the dressing room resembled an Accident and Emergency ward, Nasser Hussain yesterday chose the biggest of stages to show himself to be a true leader.

The England captain may have scored more dazzling Test hundreds than his 120 not out on the first day of this first Test between England and India here, but it is doubtful that he has scored a more satisfying or important one.

His injury-depleted side were desperate to make a good start to this four-match series and looked to one of the senior players to lead from the front. Rather than leave this responsibility to a team-mate, Hussain took it upon himself, and showed again why he is a figure to admire and inspire.

After moving up the order to three in the absence of the injured Marcus Trescothick, Hussain showed a real penchant for playing at the home of cricket. Twelve days ago he scored his maiden one-day hundred here in the NatWest Series final against India and, even though he spent a large part of yesterdaybattling with cramp in his hands and arms, his 11th Test hundred surpassed that performance in both style and substance.

Having decided to bat on winning an important toss and selecting Craig White ahead of Dominic Cork, Hussain arrived at the crease earlier than he would have wished after Michael Vaughan fell lbw to Zaheer Khan bowling the 11th ball of the match.

Hussain had to work hard during the early part of the day, against the impressive opening pair of Ashish Nehra and Zaheer. With the new ball nipping around as the seam gripped this dry, slow pitch, Hussain took time to play himself in. He left deliveries whenever he could, and grew in confidence as the ball softened and the Indian seamers tired.

The Essex batsman was particularly strong through the off-side, driving with authority each time the bowlers over-pitched, but it was only against Anil Kumble that he took the odd calculated risk. Sensing that the wily leg-spinner was the main threat, he looked to take the game to him rather than be dictated to. This tactic worked, as in coming down the wicket a couple of times and smacking Kumble over midwicket for four, Hussain disrupted Kumble's length and rhythm.

Following Kumble's dismissal of Mark Butcher just before lunch it appeared that Kumble's influence in this game would grow by the hour and how India must regret not playing their other quality spinner, Harbhajan Singh. It appears the Indian selectors have misread a pitch that looks likely to encourage this style of bowling as the game progresses. In Singh's place they picked the medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar, who did nothing to suggest that he should be playing ahead of the tourists' second best bowler.

The fact that Kumble did not take another wicket is testament to how well Hussain and John Crawley played after the loss of Graham Thorpe five minutes after lunch. Thorpe, who was left out of Surrey's game last week, hit his first ball for four, but following the break played all round a straight one from Zaheer and lost his off stump.

Zaheer was the pick of India's bowlers, running in from the Pavilion End with purpose, aggression and perhaps a point to prove. He bowled an immaculate line to England's batsmen who only got the better of him towards the end of his hard day's toil.

Coming together with the home side delicately placed at 78 for 3, Crawley and Hussain produced a vital partnership of 145 that England can thank most for the relatively strong position they found themselves in at the close of play. Crawley appeared to be enjoying the opportunity to re-establish himself as a Test cricketer and it was a surprise when he edged the part-time off-spin of Virender Sehwag to first slip on 64.

Before this, Hussain had the pleasure of completing his second Test hundred at Lord's. On reaching three figures his celebration was a lot calmer than the finger-pointing affair of almost two weeks ago. Acknowledging the standing ovation from the near full-house crowd he waved his bat at his team-mates and the members in the Pavilion first before doing the same to the Grandstand and the Nursery End. He gave his friends in the media centre a special wave of the bat to make a point after the criticism he had received for his previous reaction.

This was not the last standing ovation of the day as an equally warm one greeted the arrival of Alec Stewart in the middle as he became England's most-capped Test player with 119. These two comfortably survived the last 17 overs of the day, 10 of them against the second new ball.

England will be looking to bat once in this game if they can. To do this they will need others to show the same fortitude as Hussain and Crawley did yesterday.

Lord's scoreboard

First day; England won toss

ENGLAND ­ First innings

M A Butcher c Wasim Jaffer b Kumble 29

113 min, 86 balls, 4 fours, 1 five

M P Vaughan lbw b Zaheer Khan 0

7 min, 5 balls

*N Hussain not out 120

352 min, 262 balls, 20 fours

G P Thorpe b Zaheer Khan 4

12 min, 8 balls, 1 four

J P Crawley c Dravid b Sehwag 64

169 min, 126 balls, 9 fours

ÝA J Stewart not out 19

65 min, 60 balls, 1 four

Extras (b3, lb10, w1, nb7) 21

Total (for 4, 362 min, 90 overs) 257

Fall: 1-0 (Vaughan), 2-71 (Butcher), 3-78 (Thorpe), 4-223 (Crawley).

To bat: A Flintoff, C White, A F Giles, S P Jones, M J Hoggard.

Bowling: Nehra 20-3-48-0 (nb5, w1) (5-1-11-0, 3-1-9-0, 6-0-18-0, 3-0-8-0, 3-1-2-0); Zaheer Khan 22-7-53-2 (6-4-5-1, 7-2-21-1, 5-0-20-0, 4-1-7-0); Agarkar 12-2-49-0 (4-0-22-0, 3-0-10-0, 1-1-0-0, 2-0-13-0, 1-0-4-0, 1-1-0-0); Kumble 27-8-61-1 (15-7-31-1, 7-0-24-0, 5-1-6-0); Ganguly 3-1-16-0 (nb1); Sehwag 6-0-17-1 (nb1) (one spell each).

Progress: 50: 80 min, 17.4 overs. Lunch: 76-2 (Hussain 37, Thorpe 4) 28 overs. 100: 149 min, 35.4 overs. 150: 223 min, 54 overs. Tea: 177-3 (Hussain 82, Crawley 48) 58 overs. 200: 262 min, 63.5 overs. New ball: taken after 82 overs at 244-4. 250: 336 min, 83.5 overs.

Hussain 50: 168 min, 128 balls, 9 fours. 100: 255 min, 192 balls, 17 fours.

Crawley 50: 126 min, 92 balls, 9 fours.

INDIA: Wasim Jaffer, V Sehwag, R S Dravid, S R Tendulkar, *S C Ganguly, V V S Laxman, ÝA Ratra, A B Agarkar, A Kumble, A Nehra, Zaheer Khan.

Umpires: R E Koertzen (SA) and R B Tiffin (Zim).