England completed a Great Ashes Escape in front of a full 16,000 house at Cardiff as the tenth wicket pair of James Anderson and Monty Panesar defied Australia for 69 balls and 40 minutes at the death. It was Old Trafford, 2005, in reverse as the touring side fell frustratingly short of the one wicket they needed to win.

Having been 70 for 5 in the 27th over, England, led by Paul Collingwood at his defiant best, found the fighting spirit in the nick of time, helped by Australia's wastefulness with the second new ball. But it could have gone horribly wrong when Collingwood himself fell with a scheduled 11.3 overs remaining.

Earlier in the final session, Graeme Swann had extended his stay to 81 minutes before misjudging the bounce of one from Ben Hilfenhaus and falling lbw. Collingwood had faced 245 balls for his 74, and narrowly survived a run out attempt by Nathan Hauritz, when he steered to gully where Mike Hussey held a catch at the second attempt.

Panesar, who has been Collingwood's partner in a 'buddy' system designed to improve the batting of the tail, was cheered when he walked out and when he survived every ball thereafter. When Anderson squeezed a four off Siddle, England moved into a lead, and Australia ran out of time.

Collingwood had earlier shown great self-restraint adding 62 with Swann as England started to believe they could save the game.

The Durham all-rounder had provided some dogged resistance, waiting for his 32nd ball after lunch before adding to his score and a full 84 minutes before he found the boundary, giving a long hop from Marcus North the treatment it deserved.

He lost Andrew Flintoff at the other end to a low slip catch by Ricky Ponting during a dangerous eight-over spell by Mitchell Johnson costing only 11 runs. But scoring was not the priority for England and Collingwood remained untempted to strike out even with fielders around the bat.

Stuart Broad kept him company for 68 minutes before going back to a ball from Nathan Hauritz which straightened and hit him plumb in front of the stumps. Swann then survived a painful onslaught from Peter Siddle, receiving treatment to his left index finger and arm after being hit with successive balls in the penultimate over before tea.

Australia were halfway through the job of bowling England out for a second time midway through the morning session as Andrew Strauss's side battled to avoid what would be a demoralising innings defeat.

Resuming 219 behind, and with the best part of 98 overs to bat, England had their own nerves to counter as well as the bowling. Kevin Pietersen, often described as the man for the big occasion, appeared to have a scrambled mind as he left a ball from Hilfenhaus that crashed into his off stump.

Ricky Ponting soon called on Nathan Hauritz and did not have to wait long for his frontline spinner to make another breakthrough, Andrew Strauss top-edging a cut against a ball turning away. Hauritz claimed his fifth wicket of the match when Matt Prior proved unable to keep down one that bounced sharply.

Paul Collingwood almost supplied a catch to one of the four fielders around the bat but continued to stick around as gamely as anyone. Ponting used the occasional slow left arm of Michael Clarke and Marcus North's off-breaks, but there was a rare cheer from the home support when Andrew Flintoff cut the last ball before lunch to the cover point boundary to raise the hundred.

England resumed the final morning on 20-2, after Australia’s batsmen smashed several records en route to a mammoth 674 for six declared. England lost two quick wickets late last before rain cut short a day of utter misery for Strauss’s team.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and B R Doctrove (West Indies).
TV umpire: R A Kettleborough.
Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand).
Reserve umpire: R K Illingworth.

Upcoming Test matches:
Second Test match: July 16 (Lord’s).
Third: July 30 (Edgbaston).
Fourth: August 7 (Headingley Carnegie).
Fifth: August 20 (The Brit Oval)