NASSER HUSSAIN'S third century since his Test comeback not only reaffirmed his own survival qualities yesterday but asserted just as powerfully that England's restless tour of Zimbabwe can still reach fulfilment.

If Hussain's 200 against India last summer was significant for his personal achievement, stressing the harder edge to his cricket that should sustain him for many seasons to come, his unbeaten 101 against Zimbabwe at the Queen's Sports Club served as a rallying cry for a team that has found success equally elusive.

A three-year absence from Test cricket, during which Hussain harboured fears that his international career might be over, has taught him to value all the more the prizes that come along reluctantly. England know the feeling, a succession of indifferent displays having caused increasing edginess, but with two days remaining in the first Test, their persistence has brought a definite chance of victory.

England resume today at 306 for four, only 69 runs in arrears, and relying upon Hussain and John Crawley, the epitome of style for his unbeaten 51, extending a fifth-wicket stand that has so far brought 126 in 50 overs. Their tail is a long one, but a total in excess of 500, followed by a last-session assault upon Zimbabwe's top order, is within their capability.

The outcome might have been so different, however, had Hussain not been dropped, first ball, at short leg. He pushed the leg spinner, Paul Strang, firmly off his hip, and Carlisle was unable to hold a difficult shin-high chance. Next ball up, Hussain survived an Ibw appeal as he failed to pick Strang's googly, but he then revealed the will and patience over more than five hours to bat England into a position of strength.

Strang was the one Zimbabwe bowler to hold a threat and only once more did Hussain err, when he mispulled him, on 64, and Guy Whittall at mid-on, who is normally among the fleet est of Zimbabwe's fielders, back-pedalled rather than turned and failed to make contact.

Hussain might have made 300 in his last six Tests, but his celebrations are not becoming any less emotional. When he on-drove Olonga in the penultimate over, he needed only three more runs, but as good as ran four as his arm punching celebration stopped alongside the bowler's bowling mark. And Olonga runs a very long way.

It had been no picnic. The pitch was slow, the fields semi-defensive and, from 180 for four in mid-afternoon, the match was decidedly in the balance. But Hussain, who once delighted in what he now disparagingly refers to as "slam-bang-wallop" 50s, now drew pride from his exhaustion.

An innings that had reinforced the captaincy of Michael Atherton also underlined the strength of character that one day might make Hussain his natural successor.

Hussain and Crawley, to recall the phrase of England's team manager, David Lloyd, also killed a demon. England's recent record against wrist spin is so shaky that a wine waiter armed with a corkscrew could cause hysteria by opening a bottle. On this occasion the fear was that Paul Strang would emerge from it, and two more wickets, to add to his dismissal of Atherton the day before, threatened to add to the chaos inflicted in recent series by Shane Warne and Mushtaq Ahmed.

Thorpe, the one out-of-form batsman in England's leading six, departed to a horrible shock. The left-hander was drawn down the pitch by a googly he did not read and although he survived a possible stumping his faint edge carried to Campbell at slip.

Stewart's dismissal was umpire-assisted. England had spurted ahead against the seamers after lunch, but Strang's return paid immediate dividends as Stewart tried to sweep a leg spinner of fullish length and was adjudged Ibw. It was a marginal judgment whether he was outside the line, but his front leg was at least a yard outside his crease and the ball was floating well outside off the stump. The decision of the home umpire, Ian Robinson, was highly flawed, just as it had been when he rejected an Ibw appeal by Strang against Knight before lunch.

Crawley's flowing drives suggest he is on the verge of a major England breakthrough, but the lasting mood of his alliance with Hussain was one of immense seriousness.