In A remarkable climax to an astoundingly good Test match England beat South Africa at Trent Bridge yesterday by eight wickets, keeping alive hopes of winning a series that had seemed doomed and restoring a credibility to the face of English international cricket.

With no other distraction for the sporting public, England had to succeed and do so in style. They did. For the Rainbow Nation, well, perhaps beating the All Blacks was enough success to digest for one week.

It was a special day. Asked to make a further 139 yesterday, albeit with nine wickets in hand, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain extended their second-wicket partnership to 152 before Hussain, after four hours, was dismissed in the first over after lunch by Allan Donald and a slip catch of the highest class from Jacques Kallis. Hussain had played a fearless, technically first-rate innings, with five boundaries in his 58.

Atherton by this time had reached 88, and with 55 still required for victory seemed certain to seal the issue with his 13th Test century. It was not to be. Alec Stewart, seizing the opportunity, arrived at the crease to play a cameo of dazzling proportions, making 45 from only 34 deliveries, including nine boundaries cut, driven and pulled with contemptuous ease, five of them from the mighty Donald with his new-ball last roll of the dice.

If that was meant as a Stewart statement, then it was of the loudest and most eloquent kind with which to send South Africa packing to Headingley on Thursday week.

It was right and proper, though, that his partner should finish the match and Atherton it duly was who, only three-quarters of an hour into the afternoon session, clipped Shaun Pollock through mid-on for the three runs that sealed victory and which took him to 98.

As the captains past and present crossed for the final time, they touched gloves fraternally. Then, as the wonderful final-day crowd swarmed over the Trent Bridge turf to engulf the players, Atherton removed his helmet, wiped his brow, shook hands with his opponents and, arm round Stewart's shoulder, made his back-slapping way to the pavilion and its plaudits.

Suddenly he looked very, very weary, and no wonder. There are players who are incapable of handling pressure and there are those for whom it is the very lifeblood of their cricket; who play at their best only when the pressure reaches the critical levels that destroys lesser characters.

Of Englishmen, Atherton is without question the finest pressure player of his generation and for virtually six hours he had taken everything that the South Africans in general and Donald in particular could propel at him.

Donald was superb. His furious adrenalin-charged spell to Atherton on Sunday evening will long be remembered as Test cricket at its raw finest. Perhaps, though, the overnight break came at the right time.

Try as he might - and did he try - Donald, head and shoulders above the other bowlers, could make no impact on the rock that was Atherton, whose only chances - a run-out before he had scored and the life he was given by the umpire when 27 - came on the previous day. In all he hit 14 fours, none more profound than the successive pair clipped to square leg off Pollock that took him to his 50 in the day's third over.

If ever a player deserved a century it was Atherton but he would - and did - settle for a win. As long as he was there in the vanguard, that was the only outcome possible. The only question was when, and that was decided by Stewart.

In such circumstances it almost seems churlish to have to choose a pre-eminent player. It was, said Tony Lewis, the Man of the Match adjudicator, "a game of heroic performances"; Donald's bowling, with his wicket yesterday taking his series tally to 25; Hansie Cronje's first-innings century, with its cruel calculated assault on Ian Salisbury's leg-spin, and his assured play in the second; Mark Ramprakash's diligence in the first England innings; Mark Boucher's catching; and of course Atherton's single-mindedness, Hussain's confidence and Stewart's finale.

Lewis turned to Angus Fraser. This is perhaps the most heartening tale of all. Two weeks ago, in the gloom of Old Trafford, the series hung on Fraser's ability to survive six deliveries from Donald. He did so. Then he arrived here to feel Alan Mullally's breath on his neck. His response was to take five for 60 in the first innings and five for 62 in the second, at a time when South Africa were in a position to put the match and series beyond England.

Five months ago, in Port of Spain, Fraser's bowling earned a Man of the Match medal, a valued possession which only recently he lost from his cricket bag. He wondered if he might be able to get a replacement. Now he has.