By Jon Steer
February 23 2005

After being left out of the first ODI on Australia's tour of New Zealand Mike Hussey did what he could to impress the selectors with an unbeaten 32 from 20 deliveries. Australia went on to win the match by 106 runs. Hussey may have been more than a little disappointed with not being picked for the first one day international despite a good showing in the Twenty20 match a few days before but when the Australian middle order collapsed worringly he would have known that his chance would come.

Hussey came to the wicket with Australia already in a dominating position at 254 for 5 after 44 overs, mainly thanks to a century from captain Ricky Ponting. Hussey, in only his second one day international, showed off all his skills - his quick running between the wickets as well as his ability to hit the ball hard! He rounded off the innings with a six from the final ball.

Ponting had plenty off praise for Hussey, saying "He's very creative, he's inventive, he's extremely fast between the wickets and he strikes the ball well so he's very handy to have in that No.7 position."

Hussey's main rival for the number 7 spot is former Durham player Simon Katich who has recently signed for Hampshire for the coming season. Katich and Hussey have a further link - they have been friends since playing together for Western Australia at U17 level and Katich was Hussey's best man at his wedding in 2000.

While it is great to be able to see how good a player Hussey is, every performance of this type puts him that bit closer to a place in the test squad for this tour and the Ashes tour this summer, should that happen Durham will be on the look out for a new opener as well as a new captain...