Mike Atherton finally reached the Test century he had been waiting to complete for 41 hours 34 minutes in the rain-hit Trent Bridge Test against Zimbabwe this morning. But the achievement did not come before the former England captain lost Alec Stewart as his partner off the 19th ball of a morning session shortened by 75 minutes by overnight rain following yesterday's wash out, the first in a Nottingham Test for 33 years.
Neil Johnson made Atherton work hard for the extra runs he needed after reaching 96 at Thursday's close, and attacked him with two sharp bouncers in the second over - as well as an excellent ball which nipped back - before the formalities were completed. Johnson's first ball of his second over was dug in, and Atherton pulled it sweetly off the middle of the bat for his 14th four to move to 50th first class Century's, 14th in Tests and fifth at Trent Bridge. It had taken 325 minutes, came off 240 balls and included a six to add to his boundary count. He had already passed Denis Compton's Nottingham record of 955 runs in Test Cricket.
