November 30-December 4 1995 at The Wanderers, Johannesburg: England drew with South Africa.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/1625 ... ca-1995-96English cricket in the nineties was like anything else; a brief spasm of rapture experienced against an eternity of wretchedness. On the Ashes tour of 1994-5, England lost the first two Tests, and the series 3-1, but miraculously won in Adelaide. They drew 2-2 at home to West Indies, coming from behind twice. They lost 1-0 in South Africa, but after holding out until the fifth Test in Cape Town. Angus Fraser mostly stayed fit and Dominic Cork had a sensational first year in international cricket.
The Test in 1995 that is most closely woven into the tapestry of England's cricketing mythology is the draw at the Wanderers, the scene of Mike Atherton's legendary eleven hour blockade erected against the hostility of the South African quartet of pace bowlers: Donald, Pollock, McMillan and Pringle. The sixth longest innings ever played by an England batter.
Ever since I started following cricket, there was always a belief that England players were never more at home than when fighting adversity, a faith that withstood abundant and frequent evidence to the contrary. Probably it has its roots in the foundation myth of modern Britain, the World War II of Churchill, Dunkirk and digging for victory. Commentators would look in vain for the same spirit in their sporting sons and daughters. And when it actually happened, it felt so right. And it felt especially right when it was Mike Atherton, cussed and pragmatic, backed up by the eccentric and improvisational Jack Russell who batted for nearly six hours for 29*.
Today, faced with 479 to win and 165 overs to get them, the England batters would choose to go for the runs and perish in the attempt. There remains something noble in the batter, ideally an opener, refusing to bow to the inevitable and blunting everything the opposition can throw at him, and not even to win the game. To deny the seeming inevitability of the defeat. It is the Test match's most esoteric joy. Athers bowed out of Tests with an average of 37.5 and 16 hundreds out of 212 attempts. But we remember him first of all as the resolute, durable and obdurate Iron Mike, the man who stood alone against South Africa for two days in Johannesburg. And why not. In sport, the myth is the best part of the story. These were the two days that Atherton got to live up to his popular image. Bruised, inexhaustible, unbeaten.