5 Best Blockathon Match-Saving Knocks

 No format of Cricket tests the skills of a cricketer more than Test cricket  The longest format of cricket pushes cricketers to show amount of determination and patience too  Test cricket has witnessed some highly patient yet heroic knocks  Which helped their team secure a hard-fought stalemate

 Mike Atherton produced one of the most memorable match-saving knocks in the history of cricket  He scored a marathon 185 not out off 492 balls to pull a draw against South Africa  England was chasing a mammoth target of 479 when skipper Mike Atherton took up the mantle of saving the match  Atherton put on an unbelievable display of Test match batting against world class bowlers like Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock  To be precise, he spent 10 hours and 43 minutes at the crease

 Being asked to follow on, New Zealand were tottering at 107 for 4 at one stage  Mark Greatbatch remained steady at the crease and built a couple of match-saving partnerships  His 82 runs stand with Jeff Crowe was one of these  Burly Kiwi scored an unbeaten 146 facing as many as 485 deliveries  Which resulted in saving his team from a heavy loss

 You can place this inning at the top of Andy Flower's many single-handed rescue efforts  Zimbabwe had followed on 227 runs behind, and were 61 for 3  Flower dug in against handy Indian attack including Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan  He spent nearly 544 minutes at the crease facing 444 balls  His 232 not out remains the highest Test score by a wicket-keeper

 In his debut game, Faf du Plessis gave batsmen all over the world a crash course on saving a Test match  Chasing 430, the Proteas were already 4 wickets down for 77  First session of the last day saw Faf du Plessis repairing the inning with AB de Villiers without losing a wicket till lunch  Soon after the beginning of the post-tea session, the young South African reached a memorable century  Faf du Plessis showed extreme determination to pull a historic draw for South Africa

 Jacques Kallis is one of the few players who made a career out of saving Tests  South Africans were enforced to follow on after getting all out for 188 in response of West Indies 543  The Proteas 2nd innings was all about a dogged resistance from Jacques Kallis  He scored unbeaten 109 from 346 balls and batted almost 7 hours  He make sure that his team left the match unscathed, avoiding an embarrassing loss