Hussain tribute to majestic Marcus

England's captain, Nasser Hussain, described Marcus Trescothick's valiant innings in a losing cause here yesterday as one of the most remarkable he had seen for England. He was not kidding.

But Hussain also made the pertinent point that England's day was undone, at least in part, by poor umpiring. He did not quite say so, of course, and settled for emphasising: "The game has to do something, through the authorities, the ICC and other people. You saw the game, it was a great day's cricket. We have got to pick ourselves up and not dwell any more on what happened out there or this tour will spiral downwards."

Trescothick, who has been on antibiotics for three days, said he was able to bat normally although he tired after a couple of hours. "I'm not sure how I feel at the moment, it's a strange feeling to have got four hundreds and lost all the time," he said.

Hussain, despite his obvious but diplomatic disappointment still managed to pay tribute to the occasion. It was, he said, one of his greatest moments in the game and that included the crowd and the wicket. "I thought our fielding was magnificent, our bowling was good and so was 80 per cent of our batting. We could have done with one more partnertship when we were five wickets down and we would have won the game.'

Sourav Ganguly, India's captain, is obviously a man under extreme pressure. He was asked at least twice about his dismissal and insisted that such things happen in one-day cricket. "I knew if we could get Trescothick out we would win. He batted exceptionally well," Ganguly said.