Costly Run

All manner of random century-makers adorn the honours boards at Lord's - Ajit Agarkar, Bernard Julien and Trevor Franklin among them. One notable absentee, however, is the man who held England's batting together for the best part of a decade. Mike Atherton played 15 Test matches at Lord's, seven of them as captain, but never bettered his 99 against Australia in 1993. There have been few more agonising demises, either. After a first-innings 80, Atherton was battling hard in the follow-on, and as would become the norm, all of England's hopes rested on him. On 97, he clipped a leg-stump delivery from Allan Border down towards the Grandstand boundary, where Merv Hughes lumbered round to field. Atherton immediately had designs on a third run, but his partner, the less-than-rocket-booted Mike Gatting, decided otherwise. As the throw came in, Atherton was sent back, slipped on the lush turf of the neighbouring wicket, and was on his hands and knees when Ian Healy gleefully whipped off the bails.