England Cricket / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 20 December 2009 /

All the in-running fluctuations from a crazy last hour of betting on Betfair as England secure a draw in the end....

Short-price draw backers and big price South Africa layers were given a massive scare this afternoon as a good old fashioned England middle-order collapse almost resulted in a most unlikely win for the Proteas. Graeme Smith's men were as big as [48.0] with the draw as low as [1.04] when Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott were going through the motions in an invaluable partnership that looked to have taken them to safety. But a bizarre run-out that Kevin Pietersen had no need to go for saw him dismissed and he was then followed by Ian Bell, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad who were all caught behind.

The man who did so much to save England in virtually an identical situation in the first Ashes Test this year, Paul Colingwood, was then joined at the crease by number 10 batsman Graeme Swann and between them they saw out a few more overs. But it was then "game on" once again when the controversial referral system deemed the umpire was correct in giving Swann out lbw.

With three overs and one ball to go South Africa were trading at around the [2.4] mark with the draw hovering around the [1.65] price; with one over to go and Graeme Onions at the striker's end the draw was still a [1.4] chance and as the Durham bowler faced the last delivery of the match it was still [1.1] about a share of the spoils. But Onions kept Makaya N'Tini's final ball out and England fans will have breathed a huge sigh of relief as they dodged yet another huge bullet in the first match of a big Test Series. The draw was matched at a high of [3.6].

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