Storm clouds gathered over Port of Spain in every sense yesterday as England's tour D-Day in the Third Test was put back 24 hours by the weather. A total of only 23 minutes of play were possible after tea because of two outbreaks of torrential rain, and England ended a tense, draining fourth day still 38 runs short of victory at 187 for four.
But all the anguish of the second half of yesterday looked far away when England openers Alec Stewart and skipper Atherton were defying all that West Indies could throw at them.
Stewart's brilliant innings of 83 was followed by middle-order turbulence as John Crawley recklessly ran himself out for five and Nasser Hussain was lbw for the same score when Carl Hooper produced an unplayable grubber.
Graham Thorpe, on 15, and fellow Surrey left-hander Mark Butcher will be under intense pressure at the start of today's final day, with the second new ball only three overs old.
Atherton made 49 in an opening stand of 129 with Stewart that displayed for the world to see their great qualities of technique and determination.
Atherton, on 30 overnight in England's 52-0, was content yesterday to let Stewart's aggression dominate the partnership.
The skipper made just 19 of the 77 more runs they added until, in early afternoon, he dabbed at a leg-cutter from the big-hearted Walsh and edged thinly to keeper David Williams.
Stewart had batted for five hours, an hour longer than his opening partner, when Walsh produced a snorter to have him taken too by Williams.
He had struck eight fours from 245 balls in an undeniably great innings, yet it was great bowling by Walsh too who, four balls earlier, had seen Stewart badly missed by Hooper at slip off a steep lifter.
And 152 for three became 168 for four when, seven overs later, Hussain's luckless Test continued with a freak dismissal. A Hooper delivery literally did not bounce and Hussain, who was given out caught behind in the first innings when his bat was several inches away from the ball, walked off in disgust.
England may look back at the end of this match and be glad that the rains came two minutes before the scheduled tea break. The ensuing two-hour delay gave them time to rethink and then, in a 10minute gap in the weather after a re-start at 4.40 p.m, Thorpe and Butcher did well to pick up another 11 vital runs.
Butcher cut Hooper for four, just after doing well to dig out another Hussain-like shooter, and the two batsmen again coped well when the rains relented in time for another 23-minute mini-session from 5.15 p.m. in which a further six runs came.
It was all so tense, with Thorpe's meeting with Ambrose and Walsh this morning now the probable last deciding skirmish in what has been a second successive battle royal of a Test.
