VB Series: Glory for Lee, hope at the last for Hussain

It was so nearly one of the great comebacks: since Coe in Moscow, since Ali in Manila, since a former England cricket team in Barbados. Oh, all right, since young Lazarus himself. Yet at the last, with the winning post not only in sight but with the tape also there to breast, Nasser Hussain's England lost to Australia once again.

Two days after what the captain described as an abysmal exhibition in Sydney, a team who had been written off dusted themselves down, spruced themselves up and started all over again. With three overs left at the MCG in the second final of the VB Series England were winning, and the curator must have been about to put the finishing touches to the pitch for the third final in Adelaide. A run of 12 consecutive one-day defeats against Australia was about to end.

It was the second-hottest day on record in Melbourne, but the beleaguered tourists had come into the match under the sort of cloud to be found only over isolated villages in parts of the Gower peninsula. They had just suffered their worst defeat, they had been in dispute with the England and Wales Cricket Board about taking a break at home before the World Cup, they were increasingly worried about playing their controversial opening match in that tournament in Zimbabwe, they had received letters from a Zimbabwean freedom-fighting group sent to the Sydney dressing-room. It was a horrible combination to confront: they were worried and they were a bunch of losers.

But something had changed. Hussain explained it thus: "I was very proud of my team after everything they have been through. Just because a few people wanted to go home it was thought we didn't want to be out here. We used that as a motive to prove people wrong. I believe, having looked in each player's eyes, every ball meant something."

England had restricted Australia to 229 for 7 in their allotted span. Australia had demonstrated their great quality: strength in depth. The fall of early wickets on an untrustworthy pitch, the loss to a groin injury of Michael Bevan, out of the match and perhaps the World Cup as well, did not quell them. True, there had been a late flurry, marshalled irritatingly but expertly by Brad Hogg, but England had bowled with discipline and grit. An attack that had been smashed into the stratosphere had narrowed its eyes and found a plumb line.

Their reply had begun dreadfully. The top three, including the celebrated openers, Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight, who form the fulcrum, were out: 20 for 3 was no platform, but rather a gaping hole in the ground. But they showed resolve. Throughout the innings they refused to buckle. Led by Michael Vaughan, the new star, and ably supported by Alec Stewart, the grizzled old veteran, they did not panic. They lost a few wickets but they kept up with the clock.

And with 18 balls left they had four wickets left and needed 14 to win. Paul Collingwood was displaying a North- eastern sang froid at one end, at the other end was Freddie Flintoff, returning to the side and perhaps the catalyst for the recovery. All winter, England had waited for Flintoff, and now here he was.

Ricky Ponting handed the ball to Brett Lee. The blond speedster had two overs left. He had removed the opening pair earlier in the piece. From 100 yards away it was difficult to be sure if he was pawing the ground, but the smart money would have had only one opinion. Lee is at that stage in a sportsman's life when the body, mind and intent are in perfect harmony. He darted in, he arched his back in the final strides and released his missile as if it was springing from the taut strings of a catapult. Flintoff opted to go for the drive, but the length was fuller than he estimated. It speared underneath his bat and crashed into his stumps.

In came Ian Blackwell, burly, bucolic and with no runs in three innings. He squeezed out a single and you could sense his rosy cheeks pushing out their sigh of relief. Collingwood took another single. Lee steamed in again, Blackwell square- drove but the ball slid off the outside section of the bat and was caught at backward point. Five runs came off the next over, all singles, including the one that Andrew Caddick nudged from the final ball.

Six to win, Lee to Caddick. Caddick backed away as though the bat in his hand was a tug-of-war rope and he was having to pull it from the grasp of an invisible body at the other end. But he could not get away from Lee's low, searing delivery. It hit him hard on the pads and ricocheted on to the stumps.

England's last chance was James Anderson. Somehow he had to get Collingwood the strike. He missed the first ball but started to run before Collingwood urgently told him to get back. Adam Gilchrist's throw skidded by the stumps.

Lee laughed. He is a terror but he plays with a smile. He went back to his mark. Anderson took guard again. There then followed a brutal repeat for which the previous ball could have been a rehearsal. Anderson swished once more, he missed, he set off for a run, Collingwood sent him back, Gilchrist hit. It was take two and the director was calling for a cut.

Australia had won by five runs. It was their 13th successive victory against England but the ecstasy was etched in their faces. Hussain, in the dugout which is the viewing area while the MCG is being rebuilt, dropped his head and wiped his brow. Briefly he looked drained, as if he was popping off to do a turn in Night of the Zombies.

The result in such a gripping match, the second time in a fortnight that England had lost when they should have won, begged an obvious question. Would England ever beat Australia?

There was life in Hussain's eyes when he answered it. "For 90 per cent of the game we played better than Australia, but in the key areas they bowled and batted well. We can beat Australia, definitely. We showed that today. We were one over away from beating them today so we won't go into that World Cup game thinking we can't beat them."

If only. Hussain spoke with involving passion as always, and the job he does means so much to him that his eyes moistened. He did not cry, but his heart was aching. The outcome of the most testing tour of his life with the most important competition round the corner was defeats of 4-1 in the Ashes and 2-0. If England could somehow have taken it to Adelaide for the third match it would have made them a team again, made them believe. Hussain said: "Maybe I failed slightly, and let people down. But it's the greatest challenge I have had and I've enjoyed it."

England lost, as they have been doing too much, but it was a noble loss. Caddick, cannon fodder in Sydney, fired the thunderbolts here. He bowled 10 straight overs for 23 runs against the same men who had disdained him.

The batting of Vaughan was of the supreme kind. He pulled, he drove, he found gaps. He was untroubled by Shane Warne, making his final one-day appearance on his home ground. But suddenly he chipped Warne to midwicket and was gone. Later Warne said Vaughan was the second-best batsman he had come across in 10 years. Only Sachin Tendulkar was better. What music that was.

It was a virtuous, doomed effort. It could not make up for the failures, and the last daft dismissal of the tour, that of Anderson, epitomised everything. And then there was Ronnie Irani, caught throwing bottled water at a barracking spectator's mouth after Australia's innings. For England a troubled tour was destined to end in only one way.