Onions in new great escape act for England

Newlands was the venue this time as No 11 Onions again blocked out the final over, and the added prize for his second act of back-to-the-wall defiance this winter was the retention of a 1-0 lead with only one match to play.

It seemed the late twist would not be required while Ian Bell (78) and Paul Collingwood were shutting out the hosts for 57 overs in a sixth-wicket stand of 112.

But Collingwood and Matt Prior fell in successive overs fto part-time off-spinner JP Duminy and, after Stuart Broad had gloved one to short-leg off Paul Harris, Bell fenced a catch behind to Morne Morkel to be ninth out with 17 balls left.

It fell to Morkel to deliver the final six balls at Onions but he could not shift him.

England, therefore, closed on 296-9, reprising the survival acts of both Centurion last month and Cardiff in the Ashes five months previously.

For South Africa, a failure to take more than six wickets on the last day was a demoralising outcome.

A team ranked the best in the world until last month must accept a drawn series is the limit of their ambitions for next week's fourth and final Test in Johannesburg.

Set a world-record 466 to win here, England knew at the start of play the best they could possibly hope for was a hard-fought stalemate.

After the morning departures of James Anderson and Jonathan Trott, pictured below right, their last two specialist batsmen were all determination and had to be when South Africa took the second new ball at 180-5 straight after lunch.

In the early stages of Bell and Collingwood's tour de force, Dale Steyn and Morkel induced all manner of plays and misses, some painful, but neither managed the crucial desired effect of another wicket.

Collingwood, who needed 20 balls to score his first run, and Bell very nearly ground to a halt at times. But that did not ease the frustration for opponents who were compromised by third seam bowler Friedel de Wet's buttock injury, yet who surely still expected to force a series-levelling result even on a pitch which never deteriorated.

Bell kept out 212 balls in all and Collingwood, a stalwart of both England's 2009 rearguards, not to mention a similar if ultimately fruitless exercise in self-denial at Adelaide three winters ago, operated gloriously at around 0.6 runs per over for his 40.

But after Collingwood finally edged to slip off Duminy and then Prior poked one off the face of the bat to be very well held by AB de Villiers at short leg in the same bowler's next over, South Africa had another chance in the evening sunshine.

Eleven overs remained; there were seven men round the bat to Duminy and Harris's spin, and England were looking more than ever to Bell to hold out.

The hosts turned again to Steyn's pace but it was Harris who saw off Broad, who went to review but ought not to have done, and then Bell's dismissal left Graeme Swann and Onions to bail out England again.

Before the wicketless afternoon, Trott and Anderson had kept South Africa at bay for the first 11 overs.

They each had obvious extra motivation to defy the hosts, for different reasons.

Cape Town-born Trott was batting at a venue only a few hundred yards from his old school and where he first made his way as a professional cricketer for Boland.

Anderson, meanwhile, had his mindset rattled after he and Broad were put in the frame when South Africa raised transitory concerns with match referee Roshan Mahanama over their suspicions of ball-tampering.

If Anderson thought he was going to have the last laugh in the morning, though, he was mistaken. After 45 minutes of concentration, he lost his wicket to a stroke of misfortune.

Lining up a sweep at a full toss from Harris, he under-edged the ball down on to his boot and then saw it fly back up to be brilliantly caught one-handed at backward short-leg by Ashwell Prince. It was a cruel blow for England.

But new batsman Collingwood rightly reviewed and survived Tony Hill's decision when South Africa thought Harris had him caught at slip first ball. The good news for the tourists was that the ball had hit only his thigh; the bad news was that it had turned and bounced alarmingly.

Trott fell to a beauty from Steyn, which ripped back off the seam to beat him through the gate on the back foot and knock out off-stump.

There was little he could have done. Yet by becoming the sixth of eight England dismissals in this match for scores between 40 and 80, he contributed to an uncomfortable statistic against hosts who could boast two hundreds – one almost a double – and a 95.

In the final analysis, the only figures that mattered to England were 1-0.

South Africa v England

Cape Town: Match drawn.

Overnight: South Africa 291 and 447-7 dec, England 273 and 296-9.

South Africa First Innings

G C Smith c Prior b Anderson 30

A G Prince c Prior b Anderson 0

H M Amla lbw b Onions 14

J H Kallis c Prior b Onions 108

A B de Villiers c Strauss b Swann 36

J P Duminy c Prior b Swann 0

M V Boucher lbw b Broad 51

D W Steyn c Trott b Anderson 26

M Morkel c Swann b Anderson 0

P L Harris not out 10

F de Wet lbw b Anderson 0

Extras b1 lb13 w1 nb1 16

Total (86.1 overs) 291

Fall: 1-1 2-46 3-51 4-127 5-127 6-216 7-280 8-280 9-281.

Bowling: Anderson 21.1 1 63 5; Onions 20 4 69 2; Broad 19 6 54 1; Swann 22 1 74 2; Pietersen 4 0 17 0.

England First Innings

A J Strauss c Boucher b M Morkel 2

A N Cook c Prince b M Morkel 65

I J L Trott b Steyn 20

K P Pietersen c & b Steyn 0

P D Collingwood lbw b M Morkel 19

I R Bell c Duminy b Kallis 48

M J Prior b Steyn 76

S C J Broad b Steyn 25

G P Swann c Smith b M Morkel 5

J M Anderson c Smith b M Morkel 0

G Onions not out 4

Extras lb6 w2 nb1 9

Total (88 overs) 273

Fall: 1-2 2-36 3-36 4-73 5-133 6-174

7-225 8-241 9-241.

Bowling: M Morkel 22 4 75 5; de Wet 16 3 36 0; Steyn 22 5 74 4; Kallis 14 2 27 1; Harris 9 0 39 0; Duminy 5 0 16 0.

South Africa Second Innings

A G Prince lbw b Swann 15

G C Smith c Collingwood b Onions 183

H M Amla c Cook b Swann 95

J H Kallis c Prior b Anderson 46

A B de Villiers c Broad b Anderson 34

J P Duminy c Prior b Anderson 36

M V Boucher c Bell b Swann 15

D W Steyn not out 1

Extras b8 lb7 nb2 pens 5 22

Total 7 wkts dec (111.2 overs) 447

Fall: 1-31 2-261 3-346 4-376 5-401

6-442 7-447.

Bowling: Anderson 22.2 1 98 3; Onions 22 4 87 1; Swann 37 5 127 3; Broad 22 4 79 0; Pietersen 3 0 6 0; Trott 5 0 30 0.

England Second Innings

A J Strauss c Amla b Harris 45

A N Cook c Boucher b de Wet 55

I J L Trott b Steyn 42

K P Pietersen lbw b Steyn 6

J M Anderson c Prince b Harris 9

P D Collingwood c Kallis b Duminy 40

I R Bell c Smith b M Morkel 78

M J Prior c de Villiers b Duminy 4

S C J Broad c de Villiers b Harris 0

G P Swann not out 10

G Onions not out 0

Extras b1 lb4 w1 nb1 7

Total 9 wkts (141 overs) 296

Fall: 1-101 2-107 3-129 4-153 5-160 6-272 7-278 8-286 9-290.

Bowling: M Morkel 28 9 51 1; Steyn 35 11 74 2; de Wet 12 5 23 1; Harris 40 14 85 3; Kallis 14 4 28 0; Duminy 12 3 30 2.

More memorable acts of defiance

Yesterday's dramatic finish to the Third Test was the second time England had hung on with one wicket to spare in this series and the third time within 12 months.

Here, we look at some other memorable last-day escapes.

England v South Africa

Third Test, Old Trafford, 1998

After South Africa had piled on the runs before declaring on 552-5, England were bowled out for just 183 in reply and were asked to follow on. Needing to bat out five sessions to save the Test match, not even Alec Stewart's seven-hour stay, which yielded 164, looked enough to save them when No 11 Angus Fraser joined Robert Croft with 20 minutes left to play. South Africa fast bowler Allan Donald was in full flow but Croft and Fraser stood firm to claim an invaluable draw as England went on to win the final two Tests and clinch the series 2-1.

England v Sri Lanka

First Test, Galle, December 2003

Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan tormented England's batsmen in the opening Test of the series, claiming figures of 7-46 in the first innings. On a turning final-day Galle wicket he completed his

10-wicket match haul before removing Richard Johnson with just 19 balls left to set up a pulsating finish. That brought Matthew Hoggard to the crease and the Yorkshireman saw his side home in partnership with Ashley Giles.

England v Australia

Third Test, Old Trafford, 2005

After their thrilling two-run win at Edgbaston a buoyant England had the chance to go 2-1 ahead in the series, needing 10 wickets on the final day. Fans were treated to an absorbing day's play with Australia captain Ricky Ponting playing a lone hand for the tourists. With wickets falling around him at regular intervals the Tasmanian batted for just shy of seven hours to make 156, but when he was caught behind off Steve Harmison with 20 minutes left it looked like his innings would be in vain. Glenn McGrath strode to the crease and with Brett Lee saw Australia home for a draw.

West Indies v England

Third Test, Antigua, 2009

Trailing 1-0 in the series, new England captain Andrew Strauss had given his bowlers five sessions to bowl out the hosts, but they fell agonisingly short when last-wicket pair Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards negotiated the final half-hour to earn a draw that would prove vital as they won the series 1-0.

England v Australia

First Test, Cardiff, 2009

The tourists looked firm favourites to claim the first Test of last summer's Ashes until Paul Collingwood produced a memorable five-hour masterclass in obduracy. He eventually fell in the evening session of the fifth day and the uncelebrated

last-wicket pairing of James Anderson and Monty Panesar were left with an unlikely task to save the day withy a 69-ball stand of defiance. England would, of course, go on to win the series 2-1.