Queensland v England (Cairns)

Alec Stewart put Queensland in to bat on a damp wicket at Cairns.  After a few overs he must of thought he had made a terrible mistake when Maher and Hayden started the innings off with a fifty-five run partnership.  Love then tried to hold the innings together but the rest of the team collapsed.  Love ended the innings with an unbeaten forty-three.  After 69.5 overs Queensland were all out for a very poor 143 and left England in a strong position.  Thanks mainly to Cork and Mullally who took 9 wickets between them.

If you thought Queensland batted badly then think again.  England were bowled out for 122 from 52.2 overs.  Only Mark Rampraksh looked comfortable on a pitch which was getting drier and flatter.  Bichel was the pick of the bowler with figures of 6-27.

Queensland turned the game around when they scored 289 from 90.5 overs on a flat pitch which was starting to turn a bit.  Hayden and Healy were the main run scorers.   Healy scored a superb 74 to give the total a boost.  Croft was the best of the English bowlers picking up 5 wickets for 78 runs.

England were left needing 311 runs to win and got off to a bad start loosing Atherton and Butcher for just 42 runs.  But Nasser Hussain came in and played the innings of the match.  He scored an unbeaten 155 and led England to a thrilling 1 wicket win.   Bichel was the leading bowler with 5 wickets as England finished the innings on 313.

This was a very good tour match which had many twists and turns.  My man of the match has got to be Nasser Hussain who steered England to victory.  The pitch started off as a bowlers but soon dried out and the scores got higher and higher.  This win will boost the England team morale for the first test against Australia.  But it wasn't the most convincing of performances and they have got a lot to work on.