Hussey repays Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire 369 for 9 (Hussey 126*, Brown 54) v Lancashire
Scorecard

David Hussey had promised to pay back his debt to Nottinghamshire and is already a good part of the way there.

The Australia batsman, lured to play for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League last season despite having agreed a two-year deal at Trent Bridge, celebrated his return to the county with a largely impressive - if not quite chanceless - century as Nottinghamshire dominated the opening day.

"I realise I left Nottinghamshire in the lurch," he said last week after accepting a surprise invitation to stand in for his compatriot, Adam Voges, who is with Australia A for five weeks. "This is a great opportunity to repay them."

For good measure, it is not a bad platform from which to remind Australia's selectors that he is not far away should their Ashes campaign not evolve as planned. Hussey has yet to win a Test cap but is clearly at home in English conditions. Picking up where he left off during his previous stint with Nottinghamshire, a four-year period that included their 2005 Championship triumph, he posted his 20th first-class century in their colours.

On a ground almost always helpful to swing bowling, Lancashire could not be faulted for effort after Chris Read had won the toss and chosen to back his batsmen.

But until, finally, Hussey wearily miscued Karl Brown to mid-on, having faced 145 deliveries, Lancashire has induced only one error of not. Much to the frustration of their captain, Glen Chapple, who troubled Hussey more than any bowler, it came and went on 45, when an edge to backward point was dropped by Mal Loye.

Otherwise, almost everything with which Lancashire tempted him in his strong area outside off stump was punished. Probably four fifths of his runs were scored on that side of the wicket, most in the arc between cover and third man.

The innings effectively rescued Nottinghamshire from another wobbly start from their top order.

Will Jefferson, pushing forward, edged to the wicketkeeper off Oliver Newby, who then gained what Bilal Shafayat, his next victim, clearly felt was a fortuitous lbw. Mark Wagh, who also took advantage when Lancashire failed to control their away swing, reached 40, but the introduction of a change of pace in the shape of Steven Croft saw him caught at second slip. Samit Patel departed in the same spell, edging to the wicketkeeper as he tried to force through the off side.

But Hussey's first scoring stroke went to the midwicket boundary and it was clear his confidence was high. In a stand of 170 with Ali Brown for the fifth wicket, he scored 106, reaching three figures with a soaring six over the top off Gary Keedy, who found some slow turn but could manage only one wicket.

Without Sajid Mahmood, with the England Lions, as well as Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson, Lancashire's bowling was always likely to be stretched. Newby's early successes with the new ball were his only ones and Kyle Hogg, the third of Chapple's quicker trio, tended to have the ball swing too much.

In the circumstances, two wickets for Karl Brown on his first Championship appearance of the season was a welcome bonus. As well as proving Hussey's unlikely undoing, his gentler medium pace had gained him a scalp with his third delivery, strangling Ali Brown down the leg side, although not before the former Surrey plunderer had passed fifty for the fifth time in his last six Championship innings.

The wickets of Mark Ealham and Darren Pattinson rewarded another day of unstinting toil by Chapple, but Nottinghamshire suffered only one loss against the second new ball as Lancashire wilted in the heat.

To compound the frustrations of the visiting team, who arrived on the back of two heavy defeats in the Championship, they endured more punishment from an unlikely source as Ryan Sidebottom, the only member of England's pre-Ashes squad playing for his county this week, weighed in with an unbeaten 35, his best first-class score for Nottinghamshire and his highest for anyone since making 40 not out for Yorkshire against Kent in April 2001.