CAPETOWN: Number 11 batsman Graham Onions batted out the last over for the second time in the series as England escaped with a draw on the fifth day of the third Test against South Africa here today.

England finished on 296-9 after four wickets fell in the last hour. They also lost nine wickets in the first Test in Centurion. The result meant England will go into the fourth and final Test in Johannesburg with an unbeatable 1-0 lead. South Africa scored 291 in the first innings before dismissing England for 273. The Proteas had declared their second innings at 447-7.

A dramatic finish seemed unlikely when Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell batted together for almost four hours in a sixth wicket partnership which seemed to have earned a comfortable draw for their team. But Collingwood was caught at slip off JP Duminy with 13.3 overs remaining and as happened in the first Test England found themselves in desperate trouble.

In Duminy’s next over, Matt Prior prodded a catch to AB de Villiers at short leg. With up to seven fielders clustered around the bat, Stuart Broad survived without scoring a run for 22 balls before a ball from Paul Harris bounced and popped off his glove for De Villiers to make another catch at short leg.

With his first ball Morne Morkel had Bell (78) caught at first slip by Graeme Smith after a 286-minute vigil. There were 17 balls left but Onions and Graeme Swann survived against Dale Steyn and Morkel, with Onions playing out the last over from Morkel.

South African hopes were high when they took the second new ball one over after lunch, needing five wickets to square the series. But Collingwood survived a blistering spell of fast bowling from Dale Steyn, while the rest of the South African bowling attack made minimal impression.

Steyn gave South Africa an important breakthrough 36 minutes before lunch when he bowled Jonathan Trott. But Steyn and Morne Morkel could not separate England’s last two specialist batsmen when they took the new ball.

Collingwood was given a torrid time by Steyn, who had him playing and missing at balls which swung away late, earning a wry acknowledgement from the batsman, and twice almost bowling him with deliveries which cut back. But at the end of a six-over spell Steyn had not taken a wicket and Collingwood, having faced 29 of the 36 balls bowled by Steyn, was still battling away, as he did when England escaped with a draw in the first Test in Centurion.

While Steyn bowled superbly with no luck, Smith could not find any magic from his other bowlers until the unlikely intervention of Duminy in the last hour.