Batting under lights is never easy

The Indian captain blurted that his side would bat first, just as Hussain would have done had he won the toss.

In floodlit one-day internationals it is almost always the preferred choice for a captain - thanks to a combination of poor light during the twilight zone and evening dew freshening up the pitch.

Given Hussain's luck at the toss, therefore, England should get plenty of practice chasing targets under lights over the coming year, which they are likely to need in South Africa.

Two of their preliminary games in the World Cup, against India and Pakistan, are scheduled to be under lights, as will some of the Super Six matches and one of the semi-finals.

On the one hand, they can take enormous encouragement from their performance in Calcutta in that they were able to maintain a run-rate that kept them in the hunt to pass India's 281.

On the other, it took an inspired effort from Marcus Trescothick - 121 from 109 balls, including the fastest century reached by an England player (80 balls) - to get close.

Of course, they have the remaining five one-day internationals in India - two of them under lights - and five in New Zealand to turn their form around.

Australia have played almost three times as many day-night games

Five comfortable one-day wins in Zimbabwe last autumn will have been good for motivational purposes, but it is wins in the heat of battle that are needed most.

It might, for all that, be unfair to expect any more of England's photo-sensitive batsmen.

This was only their 71st floodlit one-day international. Compare that with Australia (200), India (122) and the West Indies (97 - all of them away from the Caribbean).

All the other principal nations fall between these figures, apart from Zimbabwe (47), who only played their first floodlit one-dayer in November 1993.

England played their first in 1979, although it was only introduced for home internationals two seasons ago.

Worryingly, their experience in South Africa is hardly encouraging.

In the three floodlit matches they played there two winters ago, two in Cape Town and at one in Johannesburg, they suffered embarrassingly heavy defeats at the hands of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Flintoff had a night to remember in Karachi

While they fought to the end in the first of those matches, going down by a single run to South Africa, they were clueless at how to cope with the changing conditions when batting second against Zimbabwe, replying to 211 all out with 107 all out.

And in the final of that triangular tournament, at the Wanderers, they blew their chance of claiming a notable scalp when they bowled out South Africa for 149 all but could only manage 111 in reply.

The story has been little different since.

A brilliant win in the first one-dayer in Karachi in October 2000, which featured 84 off 60 balls by Andrew Flintoff, gave way to a series of defeats when England next batted second under lights.

In Colombo they replied to Sri Lanka's 226 with 160 all out, at Edgbaston they followed Pakistan's 273 with 165 and, perhaps worst of all, at Old Trafford they were bundled out for 86 after Australia had scored 208.

Things are improving, but time is short.