Hussain talks of strategy to minimise Klusener's run-making damage

Centurion - With 11 days until the Durban Test, England captain has placed the team on a Lance Klusener alert in an effort to minimise the free-hitting, willow-wielding affect the Natal all-rounder is having on the tourists.

What it all comes down to is a matter of 246 runs in two innings for an average of 123.00, and at seven in the order as well. As he reflected glumly, Team England were doing nicely at St George's Park on day one of the Second Test when they had reduced South Africa to 146 for five, when along comes Klusener and in the manner of a latter day Gilbert Jessop picks up the innings and runs off with it.

Jessop, as with Klusener now, was a bigger hitter at the turn of this century and put the wind up most bowlers. He won a Test with an innings of 104 in 77 minutes on a rain affected pitch against Australia 97 English seasons ago, and the Australians are still grumbling about it.

Now it is England's turn to complain about how to curb the hard-hitting Klusener, whose strength as a batsman is that he hits the ball straight. Hussain's bowlers got it just about right early on by keeping the ball up and not putting it into his arc.

Northerns' coach Peter Kirsten, who is one of the UCB's specialist batting coaches, agrees with Hussain, but has no sympathy for the England captain as he tries to contain the hard-hitting, likeable all-rounder who is also wondering where his next Test wicket is coming from.

"It's nice to get the runs but I would dearly love to take a few wickets as well," he said. "After all, I am selected because I am an all-rounder," he pointed out.

Kirsten's view is that Graham Ford, the former Natal coach who now slipping nicely into Bob Woolmer's position, has worked well with the man they call Zulu. He can also hold a radio interview in four languages, Afrikaans as well as Zulu, Xhosa and English.

"The man has a special talent and he is not going to be easy to shift," Kirsten said.

Hussain was pondering the issue on Monday night after the drawn second Test of the series and wondered how it was possible to curb such talent. This was after Hansie Cronje, the South African captain, had also been cosidering if Klusener could be moved up the order.

Naturally Cronje felt the current balance of the batting order was not in any need for a change as the top six continued to do the job asked of them and why, in that case, mess around with seven, eight and nine?

As most sides would enjoy having batsmen able to score big hundreds or half-centuries in one of the three positions, Cronje's thoughts are pertinent. "Just when you have done all the hard work you have a player, such as Klusener, coming in at seven," he said.

"He goes for his shots and hits the ball hard and suddenly the game is changing: the innings is being turned around and no matter what you do, or try, the credit side you had is suddenly taken away from you," he shrugged. "He's a world class player, he proved that in the World Cup earlier this year and when he is in this mood he is hard to stop.

"We'll have to work out some plan to minimise the affect he has had on changing the shape of a match," Hussain added. And from what we have seen so far in the first two matches of the series, it is not going to be that easy.