But two batsmen managed to score centuries, and yesterday Philip Weston followed suit as the hosts put paid to any hopes that Notting-hamshire had of recording their first victory of the season in the Second Division. After 20 wickets fell on the first day at Worcester, the pitch was routinely reported to the ECB. But two batsmen managed to score centuries, and yesterday Philip Weston followed suit as the hosts put paid to any hopes that Notting-hamshire had of recording their first victory of the season in the Second Division. Wickets continued to fall yesterday but Weston was undeterred as he moved to 124 not out off 241 balls with 20 boundaries, helping his side to reach 257 for 7, a lead of 345.Hampshire's batsmen were guilty of not giving their overseas star Shane Warne enough runs to bowl at last year, and they were duly relegated. But it is as if their new headquar-ters at West End has given them a fresh start this season.Having won the toss against a bottom-placed Derbyshire side, they were precariously placed on 207 for 7 but the tail wagged effectively as they went on to post 383. Adrian Aymes, with 73, put on 130 with Shaun Udal, who made 81, before the Derbyshire captain, Tim Munton, picked up two more wickets with his seamers, returning 5 for 85.Hampshire beat Derbyshire by nine wickets in May after making their hosts follow on, and here they welcomed back Alan Mullally from England duty.
The left-armer took four wickets to leave Derbyshire's weak batting line-up in disarray in their quest for 233 to make Hampshire bat again, collapsing to 89 for 6.Melvyn Betts, the former Durham paceman, took 5 for 22 for Warwickshire against his former county in May, and his insider knowledge brought him three more wickets at Chester-le-Street as the home side reached 181 for 4.Among his victims was the prolific Australian Martin Love, who made 66, and one of England's hottest batting prospects, Nicky Peng, whom he trapped lbw first ball. But Paul Collingwood, who after a poor NatWest series has seen Mark Ramprakash called up for the Ashes ahead of him as cover for Graham Thorpe, remained unbeaten on 60. Danny Law earlier took three quick wickets to wrap up the visitors' innings at 310.In the first match of the Legends Weekend, in aid of the Trent Bridge pavilion appeal, Sir Garfield Sobers' XI managed 166 for 6 off 45 overs, with former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams making 47 not out. Sir Richard Hadlee's XI reached 167 for 3 by the 29th over, with the South African opener Gary Kirsten unbeaten on 74. Today's match, contested by Ashes veterans, should be a little more spicey.. Luck is the ever-present factor in any sporting contest simply because bad luck generally gets a mention in post-match dispatches. Losers are much more likely to mention the L word than winners.
When winners are asked about luck, they remark, poker-faced, that "you make your own". Luck is the ever-present factor in any sporting contest simply because bad luck generally gets a mention in post-match dispatches. Losers are much more likely to mention the L word than winners. When winners are asked about luck, they remark, poker-faced, that "you make your own". A month ago, the Australian touring party arrived in England having had a lot of bad luck in India Unluckiest of all were Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne.
Ponting's fearless, fleet-footed and flamboyant reputation was shredded by a rookie off-spinner named Harbhajan Singh; yet on the same pitches the tricks of the great Warne, arguably the most magical of all spinners, were exposed by the dashing batsmanship of V V S Laxman.Such individual gloom, deepened by the series loss, offered Nasser Hussain's resurgent England an opportunity to make some telling psychological points in the lead-up to the Ashes contest. Enter bad luck: Hussain suffers a broken thumb, Graham Thorpe is injured, too.This creates the perfect environment for England's selectors to make their own luck. They give the captaincy to Alec Stewart, who is aged 38 and a wicketkeeper, which is generally regarded as less than ideal for the leadership role, and whose win percentage from his previous stints as England's one-day captain is a meagre 35. A loser.At the end of the one-day series whitewash, we in Australia saw television news footage of a grim-faced Stewart announcing that the losing experience might "scar" some of the young England players.In the wider world, where counselling is the catchword, Stewart's honesty might be applauded, but in the rough, tough world of sport today such confessions have no place. They are simply concessions to the opposition.Could you imagine Steve Waugh (aka The Ice Man), after the gruelling, losing experience his side endured in India, announcing that Ponting had been scarred by the mental anguish Singh had put him through?From 11,000 miles away it's hard to understand why Stewart was given a licence to toss.
Was there no other player in the one-day team more inspirational than Stewart and with enough cricket nous to apply the straightforward fielding grids and bowling patterns of the one-dimensional limited-overs game? If there is no captain-in-waiting, what does it say for the health of the English game? Hussain has to rebuild England's mental state for the Ashes series, which post-Stewart is a task bordering on the monumental.Glenn McGrath, sans new ball seam up, nestled between the first two fingers and thumb of the right hand, is a moderate man, typical of Australian bush stock, and definitely not given to idle boasts. Yet England's one-day surrender prompted him to tip an Ashes whitewash, so we can now add feisty to fiery in his curriculum vitae. He knows the risk in the shortened modern tour: one Test comes so close upon the next that once there's a hint of trouble, disintegration can set in, fast. That's what happened to Australia in India.Hussain has built a solid captaincy record in Tests, win percentage 42.