First Test, Edgbaston, day five: England 408 & 110-1 drew with SA 594-5 dec. & 134-4 dec.
England had a fine day with the bat to keep South Africa at bay and when rain and bad light arrived on cue after tea the first Test ended in a draw.
At the start of the day, the home team were expected to struggle to knock off the 21 runs they needed to avoid having to follow on with only the last four batsmen to get them.
But Ashley Giles needed just nine balls to score all those runs off his own bat, with three fours and a single off Makhaya Ntini followed by two driven boundaries off Dewald Pretorius.
Giles, playing on his home turf, was finally last man out for an excellent 41 and that gave South Africa 15 overs of batting before lunch.
Once again, the tourists' skipper Graeme Smith, was in exceptional form.
He finished with 85 off just 70 balls to add to his 277 in the first innings to make him the highest-scoring South African in a single Test match.
England did manage to take four wickets before Smith declared.
Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten both fell cheaply to the new ball while Smith and Jacques Rudolph were dismissed by Giles in the push for quick runs.
SA skipper Smith has had a superlative match with the bat
Smith pulled Steve Harmison for three consecutive boundaries and enjoyed one spectacular over of accumulation against James Anderson.
The young Lancastrian was hit for 19 runs by the brilliant Smith off just six balls.
Early in England's reply, however, Marcus Trescothick eclipsed that by hitting five consecutive fours off one Ntini over.
Trescothick cut twice, pulled once and drove twice before an increasingly frustrated Ntini managed a dot ball with the final delivery of the over.
Trescothick and Michael Vaughan had put on 72 for the first wicket in England's second innings before Vaughan (22) edged left-arm spinner Robin Peterson to slip just before tea.
Rain and then bad light restricted the post-tea session to just a handful of overs, and Nasser Hussain looked competent enough as he kept Trescothick company.
The Somerset man finished unbeaten on 52 with Hussain 23.
England: Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher,
Nasser Hussain (captain), Alec Stewart, Anthony McGrath, Andrew
Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, James Anderson, Steve
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Gary
Kirsten, Jacques Rudolph, Boeta Dippenaar, Mark Boucher, Shaun
Pollock, Robin Peterson, Dewald Pretorius, Charl Willoughby,