Cricket: NASSER PUNCHES HIS FULL WEIGHT; ENGLAND v PAKISTAN: 1S TEST, LORD'S England skipper battles back off the ropes.

Byline: Mike Walters

IN the week John Prescott gave us his gift of the jab, it was Nasser Hussain's turn to stand proud as punch at Lord's yesterday.

And as England's batsmen made a decent fist of the First npower Test, Hussain - whose batting was more rocky than Raging Bull last year - led them off the ropes.

Not so long ago, England's middle order was overrun by chinless wonders who used to fall down quicker than the heavyweight stiffs fed to Frank Bruno.

But from 114-3, with the initiative still there for the taking, skipper Hussain and old warhorse Graham Thorpe claimed the honours with a priceless fourth-wicket stand of 132 in 45 overs.

When Thorpe fell for 80, top-edging former Surrey team-mate Waqar Younis into the long leg trap four overs from the close, he looked so angry he could have punched a farmer.

By then, however, Pakistan looked so dispirited they hardly knew a left hook from a boat-hook. And while Thorpe was creaming 11 boundaries in his 190-minute masterpiece, Hussain - who could scarcely lay a glove on Pakistan for an hour - rarely wobbled.

On 23, he survived successive lbw appeals from Abdur Razzaq which a contraption called Hawk-Eye (Channel 4's latest gadget, not the surgeon from M*A*S*H) suggested were out.

But Hussain, unbeaten on 53 after 235 minutes, deserved his sprinkling of good fortune as England were 254-4 at the close. Thorpe said: "To win from here, we'll have to play the perfect game by getting up to 400 and then bowling out Pakistan in a day.

"When I came in, the game was drifting so I decided to pick up the baton and take a few chances. Of course it was very disappointing to get out so near the end like that. Waqar's an old mate - he set the trap and I fell for it."

For all Thorpe's recriminations, England won the day on points handsomely. The coin for the toss was delivered by parachute and Hussain must have felt like jumping out of a plane without one when Waqar called correctly and asked England to bat.

Since 1997 England had been bowled out here for 77 by Australia, 110 by South Africa, 186 by New Zealand and 133 by West Indies in the first innings.

But if Waqar thought his bowlers would take to juicy English conditions like ducks to orange sauce, Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick's doughty opening stand of 60 in 18 overs soon dampened their enthusiasm for a rout.

Trescothick, who began this summer with four centuries in six innings, biffed three handsome boundaries and looked well set again until, on 36, he sliced Abdur Razzaq low to gully.

That brought Michael Vaughan to the crease at No.3 - where he forged a match-winning alliance with Atherton against the Windies in last year's Lord's cliffhanger.

Vaughan's first six scoring strokes were 4,4,4,4,1 and 6 - the last of them a disdainful smack over midwicket into the Tavern stand.

Like Trescothick's, however, Vaughan's knock was too good to last - and it didn't. Shortly after lunch, he wafted at a stray torpedo down the leg side from Azhar Mahmood and tickled a catch to Rashid Latif.

Enter the conquering England captain, leader of four successive Test series triumphs - and Hussain took 64 minutes to chisel out his first two runs.

Soon he lost Atherton, bowled through the gate in his 200th Test innings with his footwork in a tangle, and England seemed ripe for a counter-punch. But then Hussain joined forces with his buddy Thorpe for their first stand against Pakistan since that triumphant jig in the Karachi twilight last December.

Together they rebooted England's innings, picking off the world's fastest bowler, Shoaib Akhtar, and played commandingly.

Shoaib was Pakistan's surprise pick as the tourists axed Surrey's twirly king Saqlain Mushtaq in favour of an all-seam attack, and he bowled OK in his first Test for a year.

The Rawalpindi Express looks heavier, and his remodelled bowling action more mechanical, than the svelte tearaway who became a pin-up here at the 1999 World Cup.

But he touched 92.2mph on the speedometer and guess what? Shoaib reckons he can get up to 100mph, given a fair wind and a trampoline pitch.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND- First Innings Atherton b Mahmood...................42 Trescothick c Mahmood b Razzaq..36 Vaughan c Latif b Hahmood.........32 Hussain not out...........................53 Thorpe c Razzaq b Waqar.............80 Sidebottom not out.......................4 Extras (lb1, w1, nb5, pens 0)........7 Total (4 wkts, 90 overs).........254 Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-105, 3-114, 4-242. Bowling: Wasim Akram 22-7-67-0, Waqar Younis 19-3-50-1, Shoaib Akhtar 13-4-32-0, Abdur Razzaq 13-2-37-1, Younis Khan 5-0-27-0, Azhar Mahmood 18-10-29-2. To bat: Stewart, Ward, Cork, Caddick, Gough. PAKISTAN:Saeed Anwar, Saleem Elahi, Abdur Razzaq, Inzamam, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Wasim Akram, Rashid Latif (wkt), Waqar Younis (capt), Shoaib Akhtar. Umpires: D Hair and P Willey.

CAPTION(S):

BACK IN FORM: Hussain hit a battling unbeaten 53 Pictures: CHRIS TURVEY; MISS AND HIT: Atherton walks after being bowled for 42, but Graham Thorpe weighed in with a splendid 80