Matthew Hayden won the battle of the Aussies to send Essex tumbling out of the NatWest Trophy at Northampton.

It was his century which condemned the County to a five-wicket defeat after they had failed to defend a formidable looking 281-6.

While Stuart Law scored just 25 from 43 balls, his Queensland team-mate batted throughout most of the Northamptonshire innings to plunder 107 from 119 with the help of 11 fours and a six.

However, Essex skipper Nasser Hussain pointed an accusing finger at his bowlers to explain away defeat.

"We set our sights on 250 so obviously we thought we had enough runs on the board to win the game," he said. "But we were unable to defend our total because we didn't bowl well.

"Now we have to learn from this defeat and work even harder over the days and weeks ahead."

It is not difficult to understand Hussain's bitter disappointment regarding his bowlers. Their line and length left much to be desired.

When they were not pitching too short, they gave batsmen inviting width and were punished accordingly.

Even so, the game was evenly poised when Northants arrived needing 55 from the final seven overs. But then Stuart Law and Ronnie Irani conceded 30 off the next two as the match turned decisively in the home side's favour.

Graeme Swann was responsible for that particular onslaught as he struck three sixes, two of them from successive Irani deliveries.

Swann was caught at short extra cover after scoring 30 from 13 balls, leaving Tony Penberthy to take the home side past the winning post with exactly two overs to spare.

Earlier Hayden and David Sales, who scored 53 from 70 deliveries, shared in a third-wicket stand of 126 in 22 overs after they had joined forces with the score on 98 in the 21st over.

After Hussain had mistimed a pull to mid-wicket for 38, it was Irani and Paul Grayson who provided the foundation for Essex's total. So in command were they that they put on 151 in 26 overs for the fourth wicket. The partnership ended when Grayson was bowled by Paul Taylor after making 74 from 78 balls and hitting nine fours.

Irani went on to make 88 from 91 deliveries, exactly half of those arriving in boundaries, but in the end it was not enough to save Essex from defeat.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.