Cricket/ First Test: As batsmen, and pretty much everything else for that matter, Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen are as alike as Guinness and Sprite.

One day, given a fair wind, Pietersen, unbeaten on 92 and with a second century in successive Tests against Australia on his mind last night, may come to be regarded as a genius. He is certainly unique; there cannot have been a player quite like him in the centuries since "Silver Billy" Beldham was batting for Hambledon.

Then there is Collingwood, the faithful understudy, the willing and worthy worker who lets no one down, but just knows in his heart of hearts that he is only filling a space until something better happens along. The sort of character that in old black-and-white movies would been played by Sam Kydd. For Australians, think Andy Bichel.

Yesterday, it was this blend of personalities, an unlikely combination of flavours that might have been concocted by Heston Blumenthal, which saved England from total humiliation in the first Test and ensured the match would proceed into the final day. Already, at 293 for five at the end of the fourth day, England had attained the fourth highest score ever in the fourth innings of a Brisbane Test - they have not rolled over.

Coming together midway through the afternoon, with the third wicket down for just 91, this odd couple added 153 for the fourth wicket before Collingwood, with a prestigious century within his grasp, made the decision to go down the pitch to Shane Warne that may haunt him for the rest of his life.

Had Collingwood such courage in his conviction that the four more runs he needed were there to be taken over the top from the greatest spinner the game has seen? He missed by a foot, and Adam Gilchrist joyfully demolished the wicket.

Collingwood's innings was a masterclass in how sheer willpower can drag someone through adversity. For an hour or more, while batting with Alastair Cook, he looked so at sea he could have applied for a master mariner's certificate. With Pietersen's arrival, however, came renewed confidence. The ball was softer, the threat lessened from bowling that had stripped them raw in the first innings, and suddenly there was a glimpse of what might yet be in this series.

But just to get this far is success of a sort for England: when Ricky Ponting, with a lead of 648, made his declaration within half an hour of the start, on completion of Justin Langer's century, he would not have been anticipating a second Kookaburra coming out of the wrapper.

Of all the confrontations yesterday though, none may have quite the impact that did the duel between Warne and the England pair.

The second innings at The Gabba is Warne's time. He cleans up just as readily and hungrily as a hyena after the lions and he collected his dues with four wickets yesterday, enough to see his side on the way, it might be reasoned.

But by the close they had cost him 108 runs (chicken feed in this game, but hardly the anticipated rout) and there was enough rough treatment from both batsmen to make plain that Warne does not carry the aura of invincibility that once he had.

Pietersen, until Warne was forced to resort to tying him down later on by bowling around the wicket, had treated the leg-spinner disdainfully at times, dancing down the pitch to hit him wide of mid-on in a way that the bowler cannot have experienced since he happened upon the steely-wristed VVS Laxman. Pietersen swept him as well, while Collingwood too used his feet.

Warne's leg-break, which once dipped first into the right-hander to open him up as if by surgical incision, no longer carries that menace.

For all Warne's theatricals, wooing of the umpire as he might a nightclub floozy - with Ian Bell the unfortunate victim yesterday - and his histrionics, Pietersen and Collingwood showed that he can be played.

It showed too, when Warne, in a fit of pique, collected the ball at the end of one fruitless over and hurled it in the direction of Pietersen's head, which produced a stream of invective from his Hampshire team-mate. For once, Warne was rattled. The Brisbane battle may yet be lost by England, but an important skirmish was won.

• Guardian Service