Hussain's mixed message for South Africa

Centurion: England captain Nasser Hussain showed yesterday why has been selected for the job to revive Englands sagging fortunes by sending a mixed message to the South African camp yesterday after leading the tourists to a comprehensive victory.

His first comments were that England were not going to hide in the series against South Africa which starts at the Wanderers on Thursday after an impressive victory over a strong combined Northerns/Gauteng XI at SuperSport Park and their success last week against a strong Free State/Griqualand West combination in Bloemfontein.

As Hansie Cronje guided Free State to victory over Natal at Kingsmead yesterday with an impressive A Section century, Hussain was delivering his thoughts at a media conference in which he admitted the tourists had achieved more than they had hoped at this stage of the tour.

``Were not going to sit up there (in the pavilion) and hide,'' he said. ``We are going to go out there and play (good teams) and take them on. Winning is a great habit and it gives you a nice feeling, which is nice to have, but also, we havent found out anything regarding the Test,'' he commented.

The England captain added, ``all this (winning) is great: really excellent, very nice. But it really counts for very little come Thursday when the Test starts. Of course Id rather be in this situation than the opposite (one). I must say the South African board have been good to us by arranging matches against quality combined opposition teams. But I am also going to remind the guys just where we are, that we are still the underdogs in this series and who we are playing. On Thursday, when we go out there to play it is a different story. South Africa are the top unit we are not going to forget that,'' he added.

The bad news is that Dean Headleys tour is over because of a debilitating back injury and he is flying out later in the week while the good news was Andrew Flintoffs appearance as a bowler.

The way the young Lancashire all-rounder bowled in the match: five wickets for 23 runs in the two innings, and he twice wrapping up the tail, was the sort of message the England selectors needed to boost their lower-order prospects.

Hussain admitted though he would prefer to get more out of the 21-year-old who arrived four weeks ago with a back injury problem. ``As a captain I would prefer to get more than five overs out of a bowler of his class and well be working on that this week,'' he added.

One of Flintoffs deliveries lifted sharply enough to catch Clive Eksteen by surprise, edging the ball onto his helmet where it flew to Michael Vaughan at backward point, where the Yorkshire all-rounder picked up two other catches.

If Flintoffs bowling was a bonus for the England XI the batting of Neil McKenzie in both innings for the Combined Northerns/Gauteng side before they fell to a 102 runs defeat. McKenzie followed his first innings score of 62 with an impressive 87 out of a total of 195.

The margin of victory was the Combined XIs first innings shortfall after they were bowled out on the Saturday for 201.

The pity about McKenzies second innings efforts is that it was not seen by one of the national selectors. He took on the England bowlers and despite Daryll Cullinans improved second innings efforts saw him rattled off 32 off 40 balls with four fours and a six. Yet McKenzie, who arrived at the fall of the first wicket, did what he could to keep the innings afloat as long as possible with the sort of flair of which the national selectors need to take some note sooner rather than later.

The last batsman out he was applauded off the field by Hussain and the rest of the visitors. But not before Greg Smith hammered 16 runs off a Darren Gough over to help add 47 for the ninth wicket.

South Africa and England start tomorrow their preparations for the first Test at the Wanderers with the South Africa players arriving today.