CHEERS BUDDY; BRING HOME THE ASHES COUNTDOWN TO LORD'S, THURSDAY: Hero Colly hails batting pupil Monty after he feared he'd blown it.

Byline: DEAN WILSON 

PAUL COLLINGWOOD has showered praise on batting buddy Monty Panesar after admitting he thought he'd lost the first Ashes Test for England.

Collingwood's long, laboured trudge back to the Cardiff pavilion took almost as long as it has taken him to turn Panesar into a batting hero.

The pain etched on his face as Mike Hussey took the catch to dismiss him for 74 told the story. Despite batting for nearly six hours, he feared he had cost England the game.

"I was absolutely dejected," admitted Collingwood. "When you've tried your heart out to stay there all day with just one job to do, to see it all the way through and then you get out, it was a horrible feeling. I thought the game had gone. Yet the last pair showed the same fighting spirit as the rest of the team and put in a superb effort.

"You're trying your hardest all day not to play shots or get out then I just poked at a wide one to get out so you can imagine how bad I felt, but thankfully it got better."

It got better thanks to the man who swapped places with Collingwood and survived the nerve-wracking final 69 balls alongside James Anderson, whose batting is becoming a regular feature of England performances.

But Panesar has consistently failed to prove he is anything other than a tail-end bunny, that is until Sunday when Collingwood's handiwork in the nets came to the fore.

And even though England's tactics of sending out the 12th man with messages met with irritation from Ricky Ponting, who accused them of time-wasting, Collingwood doesn't think it made any real difference.

"Monty has ability but in the past he hasn't really shown what he can do with the bat," he added. "It was fantastic to see just how much he wanted to do it for the team and produce something special.

"He was very cool out there.

There is no doubt he has real ability and it was great to see him bring it out.

"Having batting buddies is a good idea because you can give them tips on the mental side of the game and the technical side too, and it has been great working with him.

"It is always frustrating for the fielding side and we've been in those situations ourselves. In the West Indies at Antigua and Trinidad we had something similar and it is frustrating when you can't get tailenders out.

"I know how he feels and in those situations emotions run high but there was a bit of confusion and we just wanted to get the message right for the guys in the middle.

"We've received the spirit of cricket award from the ICC a couple of times recently and we're happy with the way we play the game. We'll continue to play in the spirit of cricket."

Even though Panesar and Anderson were rightly congratulated, it was Collingwood who spared England's blushes and it gave him more satisfaction than some of his bigger scores.

In Adelaide on the last Ashes tour he hit a career-best 206, but it turned out to be in a losing cause and for the original team man it isn't individual honours that drives him on, it is collective glory.

He said: "Although you can take a lot from personal highlights like double centuries, when you do something like this it is very, very satisfying.

"OK, we only got a draw out of it, but it means a lot to do it for the team and we can take heart from the result."

CAPTION(S):

NO SURRENDER Monty Panesar defies Ricky Ponting during his matchsaving innings on Sunday evening KNIFE-EDGEPaul Collingwood returns to the pavilion thinking his long vigil had been in van