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Dawson's style backs the steel of Hussain

Dilley praises Dawson for mature Test debut

The hardest task of all for a captain is to keep some sort of check over things when the opposition are poised to take the match out of his control. This was the situation Nasser Hussain faced when India passed England's total of 238 with only three wickets down and their four best batsmen still to be dismissed.

This was one of Ray Illingworth's great strengths when he was in charge in the late '60s and early '70s. On this third day in Mohali, Hussain was most impressive and it was not his fault that four glaring chances were missed which cost the side a minimum of 112 runs.

It is true that he was helped by an uneven bounce which meant that none of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly or VVS Laxman were able to time the ball as they would have liked. Even so, Hussain's astute captaincy considerably added to their problems.

He may not always have got it right, but his mind never stops probing. He is not one to stand at mid-off hoping for something to turn up; he is always, to the point of restlessness, trying to make something happen. He is in constant communication with his bowlers suggesting this and that as far as field placings and the general direction of their attack is concerned.

It was he who prompted the off-spinner Richard Dawson to go round the wicket. He was always encouraging his two best seam bowlers, Matthew Hoggard and the extremely unlucky "Freddie'' Flintoff who will bowl worse on other days and finish with hauls of five wickets. The captain did not react either when the chances went begging and he was always the general in command.

He nursed Dawson when Jamie Foster, who has not had a good match, failed to take the ball with Ganguly stranded a yard and a half down the pitch and later when Graham Thorpe, of all people, dropped Sanjay Bangar off a sitter at cover. When a bowler erred down the leg-side and was punished or was unable to carry out what had been suggested, there were no gestures of impatience or irritation.

Hussain never failed to attack a new batsmen with close fielders. He is also adept at suddenly stopping the game and carefully and precisely moving a fielder when a batsman appears to be well set. This is often done to create a question in the batsman's mind: to make him ask himself why the captain has made that particular move. It is a tactic which can unsettle concentration.

He is also a captain who welcomes suggestions from others, there were occasions when Marcus Trescothick would run from flip to mid-off to tell him something he had spotted. Hussain would listen attentively and when his bowlers wanted a fielder moved or to propose something else, he was always a good listener and at times acted at once in response. He can only create confidence in his side. England's captain prevented India's batsmen from running away with it on the third day and deserves great credit for this. For all that, it is almost certainly more than he can do to prevent the Indian spinners from winning the match. England's woeful batting on the first day will have to bare responsibility for that.