How Thorpe took the heat off his skipper

Graham Thorpe not only played a vital role for England at Lord's yesterday - he also took the heat off his captain.

His innings of 80 in the First Test against Pakistan helped take England from a potentially awkward 114-3 to 254-4 at the close.

But as Pakistan coach Richard Pybus pointed out, he also took the pressure off Nasser Hussain when the skipper was struggling for runs and allowed him to play himself into some sort of form.

Pybus said: "Graham Thorpe batted really well; he's a very good rotator of the strike. He made it difficult for us to put the skipper under any sort of pressure.

"What I thought he did particularly well was that when Nasser was struggling he managed to absorb that pressure and let Nasser go slowly about his game."

Thorpe himself said: "I've batted plenty of times with Nasser, he's a good mate and he battled it out well.

"To see us get to fifty for nought settled us down and it ended up being a very good day for us. We did the basics, tried to get off to a solid start, but at 114 for three we needed a partnership as well to settle us down and Nasser and myself managed to come up trumps.

"It's great to start the summer in good form. I was quite watchful early on as the innings progressed but we had to try to grab the baton as well having lost a day to rain.

"I saw an opportunity there mid-afternoon when the game was drifting a bit. When you achieve good results you have to work it out for yourselves. There's nobody with a big foghorn telling you what to do.

"It comes down to players thinking on their feet and making a decisions for themselves. If players feel settled in the team then it's all right to play positive, to have a go at it and that's one of the good things to come out of the second half of the winter."

Thorpe was dismissed by his former Surrey colleague Waqar Younis with only 20 minutes to go before the close and only 20 runs short of a century.

He said: "I was disappointed, mainly because it was Waqar again - I don't like giving wicket to my old mate. But I'm pretty philosophical about it as well."