Match 4, Kanpur
Monday, January 28, 2002

We kept coming at them, kept our heads up, but frankly we took a battering today. I haven't looked at the highlights yet, so I don't know whether it was down to bad bowling or some brilliant batting. I think we'll probably find it was a bit of both.

We got off to a flier, then stumbled a bit in the middle to late order, but as I was saying to Duncan at the interval, I honestly believed we were in with a shout. It kept pretty slow and low throughout and I thought 220-240 would have been par on this wicket. If we'd got an early breakthrough things could have been interesting …

And I think it's fair to say that both batters came pretty close on 0 … to say the least! Sachin even had a word with Goughie at the end there, and admitted that he might have got a touch. But that's the way things go in this part of the world - a few decisions are bound to go against you at some stage. You just have to put them out of your mind.

The real tragedy about that decision was for Tresco. What a scoop that would be! Your first ball keeping wicket in international cricket, and you catch Sachin Tendulkar for a duck. But we were really pleased with the way he played. Obviously he had his stint in the warm-up game to prepare for this sort of eventuality. Fozzie [Foster] … well, you can guess the rest really! He had it coming out of both ends last night and at breakfast as well, so he took a well-earned rest.

Having the match reduced to 39 overs didn't upset our rhythm too much, although it was always going to be a bit more wham, bam, thank you than a usual 50-over innings. That's why we stuck Freddie [Flintoff] in early on, to flash it around a bit. What upset me most was that when we bowled on this wicket, taking the pace off the ball was going to be more effective than digging it in, but I think our quicks, Freddie, Gough and Hoggard, all skidded on to the bat too nicely.

It was good to fit Graham Thorpe back into the team, and he played well, as he always does. We'd been looking to get him in and rotate our squad a bit, and certainly after this match there'll be a rather longer selection meeting. We'll be talking among ourselves, and with the guys back in London as well, as the itinerary is taking its toll and there are one or two players who need a rest.

It's the usual scene outside the hotel at the moment - all our coffins are piled up on the roundabout, ready to head off to Delhi. Craig White is going to rejoin the squad up there, though he's not due to play in any of the matches until we reach New Zealand. He's just back from surgery, so he needs a week or so of rehab before we can make any decisions about his fitness.

It's another day game at Delhi, but we might have to wait around a bit like we did here. I've heard that the dew can get pretty thick up there, and the smog and fog can descend in half an hour. Obviously it's disappointing to go into the game knowing that a series victory is out of reach, but we've just got to pick ourselves up from this. We've done it before and we can do it again.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Andrew Miller. His thoughts will appear on Wisden.com throughout the one-day series.

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