England vs. South Africa cricket; down to the last bowl

I tell you, I'm getting fond of this cricket game. England was way, way, WAY behind South Africa in the most recent Test match that finished up yesterday -- but with a 1-0 lead in the four-match series, a draw would guarantee them a tie in the series, big news for the world's #4 ranked team against the current world #1. So what they had to do was keep playing until the match was called.

Now, simply, in Test cricket, the innings is over when 10 wickets are taken. England looked to be doing well to get to the end of the day, but South Africa managed some late wicket-taking, so a bowler (the mouthwateringly named Graham Onions) had to protect the last wicket until the allotted balls number of balls were bowled. He had to do this in the first match, too -- and like the first match, he managed it. So England will do no worse than a tied Test. Very, very, tense stuff.

I was thinking why they didn't play best 3 out of 5, but when you can have draws, it doesn't matter.

So the question will be can England win the series by either winning or losing the last match? We'll see. They'll need their captain to bat better, and also the mercurial, sometimes brilliant, but apparently not-yet-back-in-form Kevin Pietersen to bat better too.

Here's the last-day action described in narrative form. It has to be read from bottom to top.

England vs. South Africa as it happened