When most England cricket fans think of 2005, their thoughts turn immediately to the great Ashes series which took place during the British summer of that year. However, in the preceding South African summer, Marcus Trescothick gave us a taste of things to come in Johannesburg. In Masterly Batting, author James Mettyear recalled the events leading to what the creators of that book determined to be the seventh best Test century of all time, and CricketWeb is proud to feature that essay in its entirety.