Sport 31-08-2000 Hussain Hopes To End Thirty Years Of Hurt who: England cricket team what: Face West Indies in Fifth Cornhill Test where: The Oval, LONDON when: Today snippet: "Nasser Hussain is poised to hold aloft a trophy England last won an incredible 11,370 days ago," says an optimistic John Etheridge in The Sun today. "The Wisden Trophy is contested by the cricket teams of England and West Indies. For more than three decades, it has been the Windies` permanent property". "2-1 up in the series, England should add a third victory to the ones they earned so dramatically in three days at Lord`s and in two at Leeds," says The Telegraph`s Michael Henderson as the fifth and final Test begins at The Oval and live on Channel 4 from 10.30am. "The West Indies, who lost to a weakened Somerset team last weekend by the humiliating margin of 269 runs, have cracked and there ought to be no hiding place for them on England`s biggest ground". "Both sides are desperate to win," says a rather more sanguine Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times, "England to change a trend, West Indies to preserve it". The Oval pitch is "a proper cricket pitch," rolled for 22 hours in preparation for today`s match, he continues. "Batsmen such as Michael Atherton and Brian Lara, averaging only 17 and 27 respectively in the series, could ask for nothing better suited to regaining form". This could be "England`s finest hour since the 1986-87 Ashes" says The Mirror. But there`s little between the two teams in the betting, with England favourites at 5-4, the West Indies 2-1, and 15-8 odds on a draw. [... more]

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