ONE of English cricket's long-accepted truths has been that Alec Stewart never scores runs while keeping wicket. Pick him as a specialist batsman and he will strip to his heart's content; overload him with the wicketkeeper's role and he will perform as if he had forgotten to take off the gauntlets.

It has taken a long time, but in England's tour of Zimbabwe, Stewart has shaken off a statistic that has traumatised him for much of his international career. Bar-room bores will no longer quote his comparative batting averages with and without gloves, to six decimal places: his first Test hundred as a wicketkeeper should take care of that.

Stewart had already set himself new batting standards as a wicketkeeper with his 73 in the opening Test in Bulawayo, an achievement largely overshadowed in the frenzy of an England run chase that finished only a run short of victory. Yesterday he followed with an unbeaten lot, his ninth century at this level, and an innings that should ensure that the second Test, and the series with it, is not lost.

England begin the final day on 195 for three, a lead of 136, with visions of causing Zimbabwe an awkward last two sessions, as long as they can safely negotiate the morning. As every morning has felt like a Monday since their arrival, it might be unduly optimistic to speak of victory but things are a lot better than they might have been.

England have been at their most inconsistent in this two-Test series but at the very least their character deserves grudging recognition. Both here and in Bulawayo they have conceded the initiative with poor first day performances only to claw their way back into the game with considerable determination. A first-innings of deficit of 59 still left them vulnerable yesterday, especially considering the slowness of the pitch and outfield placed every run at a premium. At 89 for three, soon after lunch, defeat was lurking, but Stewart was joined by his Surrey team-mate, Graham Thorpe, and by the dose a gritty fourth-wicket stand was worth 106.

Zimbabwe, and Eddo Brandes in particular, bowled well in the first hour, without much luck. Instead, it was the leg-spinner, Paul Strang who caused tremors in the English dressing room as he had Knight caught at slip, a fortunate deflection off the wicket-keeper's pads, and then enticed Nasser Hussain into driving a fullish delivery to Dave Houghton at short extra.

Had Stewart not been reprieved on 15, when Mark Dekker failed to hold a difficult catch at square leg, Zimbabwe might have been contemplating their first series victory. Instead, he bedded in, suppressing his natural boldness to reach his century in slightly more than six hours. Stewart has completed 1996 with the highest runs aggregate in the calendar year of any Test batsman. Considering he was dropped for the first Test against India last summer and that at 33 his international career was held in some quarters to be over, he has not just emphasised his powers of survival, he has underlined his quality of performance.

Both Thorpe and Stewart have had to contend with family anxieties in the past year as their wives have undergone stressful pregnancies.

Form suggested John Crawley should bat ahead of Thorpe at number five, but faith and loyalty insisted that the order should stay unchanged. "We owed it to the lad," Lloyd said. "We wanted him to know we believed in him. It turned out to be a damn near perfect day."