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For the third time in six months the England cricket team have managed to secure a Test match draw in the unlikeliest of circumstances.
They appear to have perfected the art of not losing to such an extent they are becoming a team to fear which is a position they have not held for some time.
Last summer's 69-ball last wicket stand in Cardiff between Monty Panesar, of all people, and Jimmy Anderson is believed to have been the key moment in the Ashes series. It came out of the blue as usually it is England who has suffered at the hands of such a 'backs against the wall' effort by the opposition. However, it appears in hindsight that this was the beginning of resilience that we have not seen in English cricket for some time.
The first Test in Centurion was a similar affair with England struggling in the fourth innings to save a game after a dramatic collapse on the last day after the tea interval. This time it was Graham Onions who survived to save the game. This set up the team for a much improved performance in the second Test in Durban and they beat the hosts by a huge margin of an innings and 98 runs, largely due to a fourth day collapse by the South African top order.
This enabled England to go into the four-match series 1-0 when the teams met again at Cape Town last week and after winning the toss Andrew Strauss put the opposition in on a very green pitch. Unfortunately, the English bowlers could not make the most of conditions and Kallis again dominated the bowling to score another hundred and drag his team to a respectable 291.
England struggled in response to reach the South African target and eventually fell short by 18 runs when finishing on 273.
The most worrying element of this is the form of Kevin Pietersen who again was out to a soft dismissal when caught and bowled by Steyn. Since recovering from injury he is finding it very difficult to find the kind of excellence that made him one of the most feared batsmen in the world. More alarming, though, is his stubbornness to refuse to admit he needs to alter his game mentality.
He believes so much in his ability that he does not need to take advice and whilst this kind of arrogance can be essential for the best performers it can only work if they produce the required results. It may be that a period of quiet learning and practice will see him on the right track again but somehow I doubt this will be the case given Pietersen's personality.
South Africa's second innings was dominated by Smith who scored a magnificent 183 that led to a target of 465 which would have been a world record had they managed to reach it. It was always going be very unlikely, though, and this was especially the case after losing three wickets by the close of the fourth day.
Collingwood and Bell played superbly after lunch on the final day and it appeared England would survive comfortably. However, a last hour collapse saw Onions coming to the crease again to save the match. This time he helped Swann survive the last 17 balls and secure England's one-nil lead in the series.
This new found resilience is indeed encouraging and if England manages to win or draw the last Test which starts in Johannesburg tomorrow then they will add a Test series win to the one-day series already won which will be an incredible achievement.
Strauss must take much of the credit for the way he has led the side and winning, or in this case not losing, becomes a mentality that is hard to break but there are also wider issues at stake here.
Since the great Australian team has disappeared the Test arena has become a more level playing field with no outright world champions. This means the art of nicking wins and surviving when on the back foot has never been more valuable.
England will never win a series 4-0 or 5-0 as they do not have the bowling attack or the consistency in the batting to set games up to achieve this but if other nations do not have the capability either then England are very well placed to be competitive in every series.
Test cricket is about mental toughness as much as it is about talent and they have reached a point in their development that they now believe they can win or at least draw every game in any circumstance. This is an important place to be in and it would be no surprise to see them earn at least the draw they require to leave South Africa with an historic series win.
