Oval Test, Day 4, Close
Sunday, August 26, 2001 It's been a long day, what with the rain and all the sitting around that followed. Obviously we are disappointed not to have saved the follow-on. To have scored another ten runs wouldn't have affected the game situation - we would still have been in trouble - but from an achievement point of view it would have been huge to come back from that sort of deficit and post a total of our own.

Still, the way things stand, this series matches all the others that we've played in recent months, in that it's come to the last day of the last Test, and there's still plenty to play for. The Ashes may be long gone, but we've got a lot of pride at stake, and it's important that we don't let ourselves down tomorrow.

There will be an announcement later in the week about Michael Atherton's future, but today was a huge day for him, no question. He's a low-key man who doesn't like people making a fuss, and he has always done things his own way, but the odds are stacked on him retiring. We first played together as 11 year olds, so twenty years later I felt it was important to be standing there on the balcony as he walked off, just in case I really was watching his last Test innings. The next few days will be an important and emotional time for him. He's been a great servant to English cricket, and I would need far more space to do justice to all his achievements.

As for tomorrow, we are going to have to show bags of guts and character to fend off Shane Warne on a last-day wicket. It will have been juiced up a bit by the covers as well, so there will be plenty in it for the new-ball bowlers. But the way the tail played today just goes to show what Duncan [Fletcher] has instilled in the side. Even Tuffers got in on the act, with his four off Shane Warne, which we were all sick of hearing about after four hours in the dressing-room!

Tomorrow is crucial though. We have to finish well and continue our semi-revival in this series.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Andrew Miller

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