England hold on for a draw in yet another nailbiter

What an exciting game of cricket that was!

Yet again the final English pair thwarted the South African attack to help their team to a draw. One can feel for the South Africans who are bizzarely 0-1 down after the 3rd test of the series in spite of having outplayed England in two of the three matches. It was a brilliant rearguard action today from Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood after the top half had been blown away for just 160, and more importantly with considerable time still left in the game. The two played out 401 deliveries between themselves, with Bell holding strong before holding out with just 2.5 overs left. Those final 17 balls provided for tense and super-exciting cricket – there were at least 2 very close appeals, one occasion when the Umpire Decision Review System was invoked and on another the ball having scooped off no.11 Onion’s bat, somehow managed to fall in a no man’s zone bang in-between seven South African fielders!

This England vs South Africa test series has produced the most amazing cricket. The New Year’s Test at the SCG which Australia won yesterday by becoming only the sixth team in the world to win a test match after giving away a lead of over 200 runs in the first innings will go down in history as one of the best comeback wins evers. 2010 has got off to a super start for Cricket – how one wishes that the world’s biggest cricketing nation had not been wasting its team in a silly triseries in Bangladesh when there is such exciting test cricket happening in the rest of the world.