Vaughan Has Another Flat Day in Fenland

Michael Vaughan may be England's new one-day captain and Wisden's first cover boy but the man ranked the world's leading batsman continued his stuttering start to the season yesterday.

Vaughan, in his first innings since being put in charge of England's one-day team, was caught and bowled for 10 by Ajaz Akhtar, Cambridgeshire's 34-year-old captain, in Yorkshire's Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy tie in the middle of the fens.

Vaughan has now managed 26 runs in four innings since his late start to the season, and has been given permission by the England coach Duncan Fletcher to play in Yorkshire's next two championship matches against Derbyshire and Northants.

Ajaz agreed that Vaughan was "probably my best ever wicket", although not the first England captain he had dismissed.

"I got Chris Cowdrey when we played Kent back in 1991, the year he was appointed by Peter May," he said.

The seamer is in his 14th season with Cambridgeshire and plays his club cricket in Northamptonshire for Peterborough Town.

Vaughan's score was at least more than the Test captain Nasser Hussain could manage for Essex 60 miles or so to the south in Chelmsford. Hussain was bowled for six by Mohammed Akhtar, no relation, a leg-spinner from South Woodford who was representing the Essex Cricket Board, continuing his lean start to the season.

There was a serious side to the latest failures of Vaughan and Hussain, who are each running out of time to find form ahead of the first Test against Zimbabwe which starts at Lord's two weeks today.

Nasser Hussain has fared little better, with 59 runs from his four innings, and other than a National League game against Kent on Saturday, Essex's championship match against Lancashire at Old Trafford next week will now be his only chance to find some pre-Test form.