England Auckland draw

         

    Prior's unbeaten 110 scrambled England to 315 for nine at stumps in the final Test at Eden Park in a tour-de-force rearguard which also featured a near six-hour 75 from Ian Bell, a triumph of self-denial as Stuart Broad batted an astonishing 61 balls before scoring his first run and then number 11 Monty Panesar helping to keep out the last 19 balls.Bell began the process by grinding out half-century stands first with Joe Root and then Prior. But when he lost his previously epic concentration on the stroke of tea, an attempted drive at Neil Wagner ending in an edge to third slip, England's mission was once again highly improbable. But it was England's wicketkeeper-batsman who simply would not yield, making the most of some early fortune in a 182-ball innings. His stands of 78 with Bell and then 67 with a mostly scoreless Broad spanned 54 overs as the Kiwis, try as they might, just ran out of time and had to settle for a 0-0 series draw.Before then, Trent Boult needed just one attempt with the second new ball to break Bell's partnership of 60 with Root minutes from lunch. The young Yorkshireman departed with uncanny echoes of several of his team-mates' first-innings dismissals, lbw pushing forward to an inswingerAfter England had begun this morning on 90 for four, it was hard to imagine how they might eke out their final six wickets for three sessions - with a theoretical victory target of 481 long since relegated to an irrelevance.