England captain Hussain leads by example

Nasser Hussain scored England's first century of their Ashes tour on Tuesday to give his side a great chance of victory against Western Australia.

The England captain made 117 to help the visitors reach 327 and a first innings lead of 114 despite a late batting collapse.

Western Australia wiped 16 off the deficit in the seven overs they faced before the close but lost opener Scott Meuleman for one along the way.

England have been heavily criticised after a poor start to their tour but finally showed that they were coming to terms with Australian conditions in time for next week's first test.

"You have to keep improving," Hussain said.

"It's very early days in the tour, people have to find their feet, and get used to conditions and the last couple of days we have been very good."

All six of England's specialist batsmen made contributions with none scoring fewer than 29 runs.

None, with the exception of Hussain, carried the job through but the 34-year-old Essex skipper made up for any shortcomings with a controlled innings full of purpose, batting more than four and a half hours, facing 220 balls and hitting 21 fours.

The tail-end, which had saved England from humiliation in an earlier two-day game against Western Australia, failed to repeat their previous heroics as the last six wickets tumbled for 39 runs.

Fast bowler Matthew Nicholson was the main destroyer, mopping up the tail to finish with figures of 6-79 from 19.5 overs.

"If it was a test match I would have been pretty disappointed to be bowled out," Hussain said.

"But it being a three-day game it gave us another bowl which is what we needed."

With seven tricky overs to face, Western Australian captain and Test opener Justin Langer opted not to pad up for the second innings, complaining of a neck injury, sending out Mike Hussey and Meuleman instead.

Hussey hit two quick boundaries to reach the close unbeaten on 14 but Meuleman departed in the third over when he was trapped lbw by paceman Andy Caddick.

With the first test against Australia starting in nine days, England received further good news on Tuesday with renewed hopes for injured pair Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan.

Neither has played a match on tour so far but Hussain said he hoped they might start in the next game against Queensland starting on Saturday.

"It is a little bit late but the injury situation is getting a little bit better," Hussain said.

Mail Cricket Editor