Doull swaps bat for ball to floor England

For 16 long days and nights around various Indian grounds England's bowlers fretted. The ball bounced as much as it deviated, which was not at all. They knew that if Sachin Tendulkar did not get them, his apprentice, Virender Sehwag, would. It was the stuff of nightmares.

New Zealand was the land of milk and honey. No Sachin, no Virender and generous movement in all directions. That was until last night when a 32-year-old former fast bowler with a rebuilt knee carted the tourists' finest all the way round this pleasant inland town.

Hamilton's proud boast is that it is its country's largest inland city. Simon Doull was obviously intent on linking it to the sea as he initiated a ferocious pinch-hitting assault, of the like hardly seen since Sanath Jayasuriya reinvented the craft, which enabled Northern Districts to beat England by seven wickets with five balls to spare.

They had successfully hunted down a formidable target of 289 which England must have thought left them 20 runs in front of par. Nick Knight had assembled his second century of the tour, at first accumulating and later blasting. It was an attractive innings of 126 which contained four sixes over its 125 balls but was puny in its power compared to Doull's endeavours.

The reconstruction of the New Zealander's cricketing career had to follow that of his knee. Two operations meant that he could no longer operate as an effective new-ball bowler. In 42 one-day internationals for New Zealand he never batted higher than eight, and that only twice.

But he turned himself into a top-order slogger. Fearlessness rather than science was the chief weapon in his armoury, probably figuring that as the dodgy knee prevented him from running too far, he might as well hit boundaries.

For the first time on tour, England played Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick and Matthew Hoggard in the same team. Doull took them all on. Caddick and Hoggard shared the new ball and went, respectively, for 24 off three overs and 54 off six in their opening spells. Gough fared little better, dispatched for 27 in five.

Was it only imagination or was it possible that when Caddick left the field for a few moments after the initial onslaught it was to call Tendulkar to ask if he could bowl at him more often? By the time Doull perished in the deep he had made 80 from 47 balls with two sixes and 11 fours, the highest limited-overs score of his career. If his mission was to attack, and when he thought of defending to attack some more, he multiplied England's difficulties by hitting the ball to unlikely areas. Duncan Fletcher, England's coach, had suggested that the match had come too soon and Doull confirmed the theory.

It was all rousing stuff but it will probably have no bearing on the international matches to follow. Early last summer, Middlesex beat Australia in a one-day match at Lord's and then look what happened. In a perverse way it may have done England good.

This was a hard, meaningful warm-up against capable opposition. As pointed out by Marcus Trescothick, the acting captain, who also opened the batting and kept wicket, that had not always been the case on recent tours to Zimbabwe and India. This has given them some idea of what they have to do to beat New Zealand. In short, lots.

If their bowling was slightly off length, the fielding, too, was short of purpose. There were so many overthrows that you could only suppose they had been watching too much of India's fielders. Trescothick took three catches behind the stumps for England and said later how much he enjoyed it.

He is being groomed as an emergency replacement for the first-choice keeper, who now seems likely to be James Foster. But Trescothick has adequate catching hands in the position, though they do not move with the lightning speed possessed by Foster, which can be crucial in effecting run-outs.

With Foster batting at nine, it is not impossible that some effort may be made to convert Trescothick at least semi-permanently. Last night he had enough on his hands with the captaincy. "Scoring heavily off the first 10 overs is part of the game that's developing a lot more," he said. "We've got to try to work out a method to combat that and are looking at ways of improving it ourselves." If the evidence of Hamilton is a yardstick they had better conclude their work quickly.

* South Africa clinched the VB Series trophy 2-0 with a six-wicket victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system over New Zealand in Sydney yesterday. A downpour and subsequent delay meant South Africa had to chase 172 in 46 overs, and Jonty Rhodes drove them to victory with a fine unbeaten 61.

HAMILTON SCOREBOARD

England won toss
ENGLAND
*ÝM E Trescothick c Bradburn b Aldridge 38
N V Knight c J A H Marshall b Yovich ..126
M P Vaughan c R G Hart b Butler ........12
G P Thorpe c M N Hart b Aldridge .......40
O A Shah c M N Hart b Tuffey ..............31
C White run out .......................................0
P D Collingwood not out .......................15
J N Snape not out .................................13
Extras (lb3 w2 nb8) ...............................13
Total (for 6, 50 overs) .......................288

Fall: 1-60, 2-88, 3-186, 4-254, 5-256, 6-261.
Did Not Bat: A R Caddick, D Gough, M J Hoggard.
Bowling: Tuffey 10-0-59-1; Yovich 6-0-50-1; Aldridge 10-1-39-2; Butler 10-1-52-1; Bradburn 4-0-25-0; Doull 4-0-22-0; M Hart 6-0-38-0.

NORTHERN DISTRICTS
S B Doull c White b Collingwood .........80
J A H Marshall c Trescothick b Hoggard 24
M E Parlane c Trescothick b White .......79
M N Hart c Thorpe b Caddick ............1
H J H Marshall b Hoggard ................38
G E Bradburn not out ...........................43
*ÝR G Hart b Gough 0
J A F Yovich c Trescothick b Gough ......0
D R Tuffey not out ...................................8
Extras (b2 lb8 w5 nb5) .........................20
Total (for 7, 49.1 overs) .....................293

Fall: 1-96, 2-114, 3-122, 4-187, 5-277, 6-27, 7-278.
Did Not Bat: I G Butler, G W Aldridge.
Bowling: Caddick 10-1-56-1; Hoggard 10- 1-61-2; Gough 10-1-59-2; Collingwood 5-0 32-1; Snape 4.1-0-29-0; White 10-0-46-1.

Umpires: D B Cowie and R S Dunne.