London, August 26: Michael Atherton was still refusing to say Sunday if he had played his last Test match innings following the conclusion of a rain-shortened fourth day of the fifth and final Ashes Test here at The Oval on Sunday.

All season long the former England captain has stuck rigidly to a simple answer about his future international intentions saying he will make a decision once his England contract expires at the end of the season.

But the way in which the opening batsman waved his bat to the crowd here after making a modest 17 out of England's second innings 40 for one, suggested that at the age of 33, troubled by back problems, and in his 115th Test he was about to let someone else take on the task of facing down the world's fastest bowlers at their freshest.

If this was his final time at the crease for his country than nothing became so much as the manner of his passing.

For a start he was dimissed by Australia's spearhead Glenn McGrath, for the 19th time no less, something that might, in a perverse way, have pleased the Lancashire batsman more than being dismissed by a bowler of lesser stature.

Secondly the almost painfully shy way in which he made his way back to the pavilion was indicative of a man who is uncomfortable when great emotion is directed at him and him alone.

Apparently, the Australians had suggested a guard of honour but Atherton did not want them to bother with such a breach of normal procedure and there was no great ceremony.

It was only out of sense of embarrassed gratitude, you suspected, that Atherton, with more than 7,000 Test runs including 16 hundreds behind him, at last raised his bat as the crowd reception and that of the Australian players no less, intensified as he made his way back.

Atherton's fellow England batsman Mark Butcher, who came on as Atherton departed, said: "We've all got the idea he's going to call it a day but we'd still like to give him the final word.

"He was my first opening partner, my first England captain and he's been a great servant to English cricket. We were probably more emotional about it than he was. But when he thinks about it, a tear might come into those stone cold eyes." Not that Atherton would ever let anyone else see it.

There was praise too from his opponents. "This series has not been one of the highlights of his career but Steve Waugh has always labelled him as a key wicket through out," said Australia coach John Buchanan, formerly of Middlesex, who also recalled the words of the county's stalwart former England pace bowler Angus Fraser