Hussain Lets His Cricket do the Talking

Prior to the third npower Test, Hussain insisted he would travel anywhere to turn out for his country and was available for all three of this winter's tours in the face of accusations that he was ready to quit a fortnight after resigning as captain.

He shared 189 for the third wicket with fellow centurion Mark Butcher and closed on 108 not out, getting to three figures for the 50th time in first-class-cricket by turning Jacques Kallis, bowling from the Radcliffe Road end, to fine leg for a single.

The 35-year-old celebrated during his run by producing an uppercut with his clenched fist and he punched the air twice when he got to the non-striker's end.

Surrey left-hander Butcher followed his 70 in the innings defeat at Lord's with a composed 106, having arrived at the crease in the fifth over of the day after Michael Vaughan decided to bat first on a Nottingham surface showing signs of cracking.

Vaughan, in only his second Test as captain, fell when Shaun Pollock found the edge for Herschelle Gibbs to hold the chance above his bootlaces at third slip.

Pollock almost claimed Butcher as his second victim, before he had scored, when he was rapped on the pad - but umpire Daryl Harper turned down a vociferous appeal to a delivery which pitched marginally outside the line of the stumps but hit the batsman in front of middle.

However, all-rounder Andrew Hall did gain a second breakthrough, having taken over from Makhaya Ntini at the pavilion end.

The left-handed Marcus Trescothick, who punished anything loose with his usual thumping style, succumbed the delivery after he drove a fifth boundary straight down the ground, nibbling at a ball that slanted across him, providing wicketkeeper Mark Boucher with his 50th dismissal against England.

As at Lord's, in the innings defeat, England's middle-order was exposed early on the first morning.

Hussain was at the crease at the end of the 12th over and debutant Ed Smith, who was making his bow alongside Sussex's James Kirtley, was due in next.

But the Kent batsman was given a long wait in the pavilion as Butcher and Hussain applied themselves in the face of some prodigious swing from Pollock and Kallis - returning to the team after missing the opening Tests due to the death of his father Henry.

Butcher did enjoy a moment of good fortune amongst a glut of fluent boundaries, slicing wide of Kallis at second slip off Ntini, on 41.

Ntini, the 10-wicket hero at Lord's, was warned two balls later by umpire Darrell Hair for running on the pitch and received a second warning shortly afterwards.

But Butcher reached his half-century from 98 balls, including 10 fours, and Hussain followed by getting to the mark from 84 with nine boundaries.

Having bedded in, the pair pierced the infield with regularity, both cover-driving immaculately when the ball was over-pitched.

Hussain rode his luck in the 70s, either side of tea, as a hook from an Andrew Hall bouncer plugged in no-man's land and another confident shout for leg before by Pollock was turned down.

The first of those incidents came shortly after Butcher got to three figures with a 21st boundary, tucked off his pads through midwicket off Hall.

Butcher departed just after the interval, enticed by an Ntini delivery angled across him, to bring Smith to the crease.

After a nervous start, Smith displayed some fine strokes, including a thunderous pulled four from Ntini from the first delivery with the new ball. The 26-year-old finished unbeaten on 40.

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