Then, having lost an equally tight decision after hitting Mark Waugh on the pads, he came back for a second spell that included the wicket of Australia's No 4, caught at slip by Atherton.
With Andrew Caddick striking three times and Darren Gough twice, England returned to the ground today with most of their followers still blinking in disbelief at the scoreboard.
Defending an obviously inadequate first innings total of 185, Atherton's team had reduced Australia to 105 for seven and, theoretically at least, the Ashes were still there to be won and lost.
If England had failed to launch a fightback with the ball yesterday then the visitors would have been halfway towards a series-clinching third win following their successes at Edgbaston and Lord's.
As it was, the match looked to be in the balance this morning and Australia were under pressure for once.
Injured batsman Graham Thorpe had spoken of the need for England to stop worrying about their opponents and start concentrating on hitting the standards of excellence which they set themselves in Pakistan and Sri Lanka last winter.
It did not work as far as the batting was concerned. For well though Glenn McGrath performed while collecting another five-wicket haul and even though the ball swung and seamed on a pitch of not entirely trustworthy bounce, 185 looked at least 100 runs below par.
But England's bowling and catching finally came good again and Australia proved that they, too, are a team of mortals rather than superhumans.
Backed up by an increasingly noisy crowd, first Tudor, then Gough and, most dramatically of all, Caddick found chinks in the Australians' armour.
"The Australians are good players but yesterday just showed that if you get stuck into them and get on top then they do what any human does and that is panic," said Caddick.
As for Tudor, Caddick added: "Alex was a little bit worried about his fitness but he proved that his body is fine and he did a great job for us yesterday by not only maintaining the pressure but also taking wickets."
