Kuala Lumpur, September 18: Mike Hussey had a strange dilemma today. It started with him being named the Aussie captain for the first time in the morning and by late evening he had the Man of the Match award in his hands. In between he led from the front to score a 90-ball 109, but by night he was contemplating how he couldn’t defend the imposing total of 272.

“I’m really disappointed with the loss. Tonight, when I go back and reflect, I’ll be very pleased with scoring a hundred and having the honour of captaining my country, but not with the result,’’ he said summing up the game.

Besides, Hussey had to make some other un-Aussie like statement. He had to talk about the 33 extras, defend pace bowler Stuart Clarke’s 7-0-87-0 and also give an excuse for the Aussie loss. “A lot of the guys haven’t played a lot of cricket for some time, so we are going to be rusty. It’s going to take time to get back into our batting routine. As batsmen, we need to invest some time and find our rhythm,’’ he said.

And finally when asked if he would done things differently in case he got a second chance now. “The only thing I might have changed was to bowl Brett Lee one [over] less in his first spell, and given him a chance at Lara as soon as he came to the crease,’’ he said. Afterthoughts don’t count for much, especially when you are the Aussie captain.

MIke HUSSEY

Stand-in skipper Mike Hussey did precisely what his regular captain Ricky Ponting would have wanted him to do: Stand and deliver!

The left-hander who made it to the team only a season ago had proved his worth in the longer version of the game.

But today, by scoring his maiden century he filled the void left by another reliable left-hander Michael Bevan.