England last pair Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar proved their country's unlikely batting heroes when the hosts defied the rules of probability by drawing the first Ashes Test against Australia on Sunday.
Australia, who had dominated the match in all departments for the first four days, were moving inexorably to what appeared an inevitable 1-0 lead in the five-match series as the England batsmen found new ways to gift their wickets.
Paul Collingwood was the exception, fighting a lone battle for the best part of six hours.
But when he was caught for 74 England still needed six runs to make Australia bat again with a minimum 11.3 overs left in the day's play.
Panesar was greeted with the huge cheer he gets whenever he chases a ball in the field or comes out to bat as England's last man.
Unlike his fielding, however, Panesar can bat and he played resolutely straight to everything the Australian bowlers could hurl at him.
"I was pretty nervous but Jimmy and I were communicating pretty well," Panesar told a news conference.
"We just said to each other play the ball straight and watch the ball hard. Now we're sitting here with a draw."
Two boundaries to Anderson off aggressive paceman Peter Siddle persuaded Australia captain Ricky Ponting to bring on occasional off-spinner Marcus North to accompany the specialist Nathan Hauritz.
Ponting defended his decision by saying both men spun the ball away from the left-handers and would get their overs finished quickly in the final hour.
But England captain Andrew Strauss said he thought left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson would have been a better choice and Anderson did not conceal his relief at facing North rather than a fast bowler.
"Certainly when Marcus North came on we thought we had a great chance," he said.
The England dressing room also realised belatedly that Anderson and Panesar needed to bat out the final hour, not just the minimum overs remaining, and sent out the 12th man then the physiotherapist ostensibly to convey the message to the batsmen.
Their presence while drinks were taken and gloves were changed also ate up time, to the obvious anger of Ponting, his team and the Australian supporters in the capacity crowd.
"They can play any way they want to play," Ponting said. "We came to play within the rules and in the spirit of the game."
"Our intentions were good," Strauss responded. "We weren't out there to waste a huge amount of time. Those two were playing pretty well, the situation was that Australia didn't take the final wicket."
The result was an unexpected bonus for England going into the second Test starting at Lord's on Thursday where Australia have not lost since 1934.
"I thought our bowlers worked exceptionally hard on a surface that offered nothing. We had our chance with Panesar and Anderson out there but unfortunately we weren't good enough to finish it off," Ponting said.
Strauss said he had not thought England would grab a draw against all the odds until there were only three overs left.
"We always thought we were probably a wicket or two too many down to expect to draw the game. When those two guys got in it was only with 18 balls to go that we thought that we have actually got a sniff here.
"All credit to them because they withheld a hell of a lot of pressure there. It was just horrible watching from the dressing room to be honest.
"Our biggest fear was Monty getting himself run out. I have to say. He's quite keen to get that quick single.
"There was just relief that we got through the game and we're it's still nil-all going into the Lord's test match."
