CAPTAIN Nasser Hussain emerged from a typical West Indian battering at Old Trafford with both his wicket and England team intact to lift hopes of finishing a disrupted summer on a positive note.

Facing the prospect of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose running in and attempting to bowl West Indies to victory, the weather and some gritty batting ended any prospect of a positive result and both sides accepted the draw to leave the series balanced at 1-1 with two Tests remaining.

Only 39.4 overs were possible of England's second innings, which began with West Indies leading by 292 and a minimum of 71 overs available, and ended with the hosts reaching 80 for one at the close.

Michael Atherton contributed a determined 28 having drawn the hostile opening spells of Walsh and Ambrose and Marcus Trescothick continued the impressive start to his Test career with an unbeaten 38 to add to his first-innings 66.

But perhaps the most significant innings of the disrupted day was a scratchy, nervous six not out from England captain Hussain, which is unlikely to figure in any compilation of his best international displays but may prove crucial to his emergence from a disastrous run this season.

Having returned from this winter's Test tour of South Africa with his reputation enhanced by a match-saving 146 in the fourth Test at Durban, he has struggled to score a run this summer having been denied vital time at the crease by a broken thumb which prevented him from experiencing any first-class cricket for six weeks.

His return to action in this Test lasted just 42 minutes in scoring ten during the first innings and he arrived at the crease yesterday with England in relative safety at 61 for one after Atherton edged Walsh behind to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs.

Straight away he was given a traditional West Indies welcome for an opposing captain, with short deliveries from Ambrose and Walsh whistling past his helmet followed by the obligatory hard stare and sharp words.

It is an experience which Atherton, Graham Gooch and David Gower have all shared in their time as captain, an age-old West Indies tactic to target the opposition skipper in an attempt to undermine the rest of the team.

Hussain declined to react and simply returned the stares, knowing full well that another would be coming his way in the near future, and somehow survived the confrontation although he looked anything but comfortable.

He had scored just 120 Test runs since his Durban epic and only 128 first-class runs this season, so any success - no matter how hollow - will have been gratefully accepted and just to emerge from the experience will have heartened him.

Once again, he had to rely on West Indies' inconsistency in the field to aid in his escape with Jacobs dropping a straightforward edge