Score	Against	Venue	Season	Rating
108	West Indies	The Oval	2000	183.7

England's first-innings total of 281 leaned heavily on the foundations of an opening stand of 159 between Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick. Atherton's innings of 83, described by the Wisden Almanack as "ever vigilant", was overshadowed by his second-innings century, the backbone of a total of 217 in which the next-highest score was 26. England's victory gave them their first series win over West Indies since 1969.

Score	Against	Venue	Season	Rating
118	New Zealand	Christchurch	1997	165.6

A similar story to The Oval. Again Atherton top-scored in each innings, scoring 94 in the first and seeing England through to a winning target of 305 in the second. Six and a half hours of concentration, cussedness and victory against the odds: as Wisden said, the England captain was "in his element".

Score	Against	Venue	Season	Rating
185*	South Africa	Johannesburg	1995	156.2

Those six hours at Christchurch were a fleeting visit compared with this, one of the great rearguard actions in Test history. Needing to score 478 to win, or more plausibly to bat through five sessions for a draw, England lost four wickets on the penultimate day. Cue another captain's innings, only more so. Against an attack of Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Brian McMillan, Atherton batted for ten hours and 43 minutes to make his highest Test score and save the match. An absolute epic.

Score	Against	Venue	Season	Rating
98*	South Africa	Trent Bridge	1998	150.9

Battle rejoined with Allan Donald, only this time no more mister nice guy. As England edged towards their winning target of 247, Atherton was given not out when a ball from Donald hit his glove, an incident that drove Donald to fury. Their whites-of-their-eyes duel was one of the blazing moments in Test cricket. At the end, Atherton turned down the chance of a century to concentrate on the win that squared a series they eventually won. Donald was an irresistible force that day, but Atherton resisted. England will miss their immovable object.

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