Aussies toil hard, but English tail holds its fort

CARDIFF, 1st Test, Day 5

At the start of days play Australia needed 8 wickets, but non more important then Kevin Pieterson's and he was the first to go, completely misjudging a delivery from Hilfenhaus and in the process lost his off stump. England in deep trouble at 31 for 3. Their troubles only increased when their captain Andrew Strauss departed of the bowling of Hauritz, scoreboard reading 46 for 4. Prior looked good briefly but he too perished of the bowling of Hauritz. 70 for 5 English hopes were on one man Paul Collingwood and he didn't disappoint, along with Flintoff asured that no more wicket would fall before lunch.
After lunch Johnson broke the 57 runs stand by dismissing Flintoff. With 4 wickets in hand and almost 55 overs to play nobody would have put their money on England. But then the unlikely thing happened and Collingwood found some support from Broad, Swann and Anderson. This meant that the aussies had to toil hard to get wickets and Ponting used 7 bowlers in the process.
But again with 11 and a bit overs to play the aussies were handed a lifeline when Siddle got the better of Collingwood. The marathon innings finally came to an end, after having batted for more than 5 hours and 245 balls Collingwood departed for 74 runs. Australia just a wicket away and Panesar and Anderson at the crease. Then again the most unlikely thing happened and the duo batted for 39 minutes and 69 balls without being separated, which meant that Aussies didn't go to Lords with a 1-0 lead. Ponting was named Man of the Match, but i would have given it to Paul Collingwood.
From truley amazing batting display from Collingwood and some staunch batting by their tail ensured that England draw the game. But if they have to put up a fight they have to pull up several notches in all three departments. The difference between the two teams was where every English batsmen got start no one made it count while whoever got the start for Aussies made it count. There were four centuries scored by Aussies compared to non by England.

Number Crunchers :
Paul Collingwood in his last 12 Tests, dating back to his career-saving century at Edgbaston last summer, has scored 989 runs at 61.81, with four centuries and a 96.