Chris Rogers shows ton of experience in tough Ashes conditions Chris Rogers brings up his first Test hundred at age 35, and the look on his face tells the whole story. Chris Rogers acknowledges the crowd after notching his maiden Test century in difficult circumstances on day two of the fourth Ashes Test. GIVEN out when he was 20, opener Chris Rogers went on to become the oldest Australian batsman in 87 years to score a maiden Test century at Durham on day two of the fourth Ashes Test. Considering he is short-sighted and colour-blind, Rogers, just 20 days short of his 36th birthday, did remarkably well to see Australia through to a dominant position at the Riverview ground on a gloomy day when the ball was nipping at batsmen like a rabid blue heeler from first over to last. It has been a long time since an Australian scored a Test century in such difficult conditions, with the ball at times seaming so sharply it was like facing a 140km/h version of Graeme Swann. But Rogers, in company with his former opening partner but now the team's new number six, Shane Watson (68), fought ferociously to ensure England did not claw back Australia's hard-won advantage from day one. Only one Australian, Arthur Richardson, who was 37 years 351 days when he scored a neat 100 against England at Headingley in 1926, was older when he raised his bat to acknowledge the applause for his first (and only) Test century, although Rogers is a veritable pup compared to South African Dave Nourse (42 years 291 days), who holds the world record as the oldest man to register a maiden Test ton. When bad light brought a halt to play at 5.50pm with Australia 5-222 chasing England's first innings 238, Rogers was a mightily relieved man on 101, having just posted his century with a sweep to the boundary off Swann after the England off-spinner had tied him up in knots, stranding him on 96 for half an hour. The ginger-haired left-hander has scored an astonishing 60 first class centuries in a durable cricketing career but all that vast experience aided him not at all as he tried to find a way, any way, to add another four runs to his total. "They didn't count for a thing," said Rogers. In some respects it makes it harder because after all this time you're fully aware how much it means. To get a hundred playing for your country is just a magnificent feeling. I'm so happy and so relieved I got it. Twice in those mind-snapping 30 minutes Swann could have had him out caught off leading edges and how he didn't bowl the gritty scrapper with his arm ball late in that excruciating period only the cricketing gods would know. The gods, as he humbly acknowledged at the end of the day's play, were looking down on Rogers today and looking after him. After all, he could have been out off the edgy stroke that brought up his half-century, with second-slipper Swann diving in vain for a catch that looked to be travelling straight to Alastair Cook at first slip. Earlier umpire Tony Hill had raised his finger to signal the end of his innings on 20 only for Rogers to be handed a reprieve on a technicality so obscure and convoluted that an entire team of Test cricketers - namely England - had to have it explained to them. The drama unfolded in the eighth over of the innings though the preamble, a little like Rogers" century, was excruciating. Twice in that over, Rogers found his fate in the hands of the third umpire, South African Marais Erasmus. The England players were uniformly of the opinion Stuart Broad had trapped him lbw and wasted no time referring the decision when Kiwi umpire Tony Hill ruled not out. Sure enough the Hawkeye tracking technology indicated the delivery would indeed have clattered into the stumps but given that it pitched outside the leg stump, Rogers was able to resume breathing again. But two balls later, his DRS ordeal began for real. Again all the England players went up in an hysterical shout, this time appealing for a caught behind decision, but this time umpire Hill agreed with them and raised his finger. That should have been the first pointer to Rogers that he would be okay because Hill has had a horrid time with his decision-making so far in this series. Sure enough, Hot Spot absolved Rogers of any nick but scarcely had that reprieve been granted than Erasmus started to investigate whether Rogers might instead be out lbw. The supporting evidence was flimsy at best, the ball-tracker projecting that the delivery might just have kissed the off-bail, and so Erasmus signalled "umpire's call." The England players began celebrating, believing that since Hill already had given him out, the decision would stand. Hill had ruled Rogers out caught behind, not lbw. Hence, Rogers was saved, although had this Test been played not in August but in October, by which time the ICC will have amended its rules to take that fine distinction out of the equation, his innings would have been over. Rogers knew the rule because, curiously, he had been enmeshed in the same rare circumstances during the Trent Bridge Test when he had had the presence of mind to question the umpire on what grounds he had been given out. But for the England players, it was all just too bewildering. I think it's the first time any of us have experienced an out, reviewed out, given not out. There certainly was some confusion to start with because we were all celebrating and then it was given not out," said Broad. It's a bit odd because if it was an lbw decision that showed an edge it would then be given out, so it's a bit of an odd one, but I think the ICC realise it's - odd - so they're changing it. That would have been a pity because Rogers, on 20 at the time, played a masterful innings, showing every bit of his vast experience of county cricket in England. Squinting through the gloom, Rogers never once flinched as England threw everything at him and his resolve in getting behind the ball and playing late and with soft hands would surely have been an abject lesson to his less diligent team-mates. It was a resolve hardened during all those long years when he kept placing century after century in front of the Australian selectors only for them always to find someone else to choose in front of him. In the end the man they call - not very originally - Buck thought his chance had come and gone. There were times when sides have been picked and I haven't been in them and thought that that was my chance but it didn't happen. Finally this opportunity has come along and I've really wanted to make the most of it and you can say that, but you've still got to go out and perform. It was my day today. There were so many things that went my way. You've just got to make the most of it and fortunately I did. Yes, conditions were so testing that even when he was well set, Rogers still found himself playing and missing but ultimately it was his England-grooved technique that saw him through. So savagely was the ball seaming that Rogers opted to play as late as he could, so late at times that, as John Arlott might have put it, his defensive shots were almost posthumous. The more hysterical of the England bowlers (read Broad) repeatedly yelped in anticipation, believing he was about to be bowled, before the bat made its exquisitely timed arrival. He is easily ridiculed, Broad, and he brings all of it upon himself, but in these conditions, with the ball moving less in the air than off the wicket, he proved himself a class above every other England bowler, even Jimmy Anderson who seems to be more and more running out of steam as this Ashes series progresses. Broad claimed the early wickets of restored opener Dave Warner, bowled for three, and Usman Khawaja, caught behind for a duck as both batsmen attempted not to play shots and then had captain Michael Clarke nicking for six, attempting an injudicious swipe through the covers. Watson's role in Australia's fifth-wicket stand of 129 runs also was deserving of the highest praise. It might be that 46 innings and nearly three years separate him from his last Test century but there was nothing cavalier about his innings today. He too concentrated ferociously right from the outset as he weathered the early storm but he seemed to recognise that there was no such thing as being "in" on this wicket in these conditions and he kept the glamour shots to what, by his standards, was the bare minimum. The tragedy was that having battled through so many testing deliveries, Watson was out to a rare freebie, a Broad delivery speared down legside that he should have helped on its way to the fine leg boundary but instead over-finessed into the gloves of a diving Matt Prior. That gave Bird his second wicket of the innings for 58 runs off 22 naggingly accurate overs, a fine reward for his efforts as the hardest-worked member of the attack.