Matt Prior and Monty Panesar called on the Ashes spirit of Cardiff 2009 to save Test series against New Zealand He added: "All our guys have been working so hard in the nets for that exact moment, when you just need one little punch down the crown to get off strike or whatever. He did brilliant. Prior had mixed feelings at the end of the game. "It's quite strange," he said. You don't want to celebrate drawing a game, we've been outplayed for most of the Test match, but you have to take comfort from the fact we got through. It's great fun. It's fun being out there, I'd hate to be watching. The way Broady played was phenomenal. He's been working so hard with Andy Flower. The amount of balls and the amount of time he took out of the game was phenomenal. Asked how he approached the day, Prior said: "You've got to find a way to face 90 overs. The wicket's still good, we knew that it was only going to get slower. You just dig in for as long as you can. Captain Alastair Cook had an uncomfortable day in the dressing room. "A lot of nerves," he said. I managed to watch pretty much all the day until the last 18 balls. You'd much rather be out in the middle than to be a hopeless spectator. Ian Bell started it off yesterday. He was there batting six hours. Then Matty Prior, that was a great hundred. We talked about someone being a hero and he took that mantle on. On Panesar, he said: "I've seen Monty in those situations before and I wouldn't want anyone else there." He added: "He's done it twice now and he's got through twice. It's a 100 per cent record. Cook stood by his decision to put New Zealand in to bat after winning the toss. "If I had that decision again I would still bowl first," he said. The pitch didn't play quite as we expected. We thought it would have a little more pace and bounce. We didn't bowl as well as we could on that first day. On the performance of New Zealand and the series as a whole, he said: "I don't think they've surprised us. They've got some excellent young players. We knew we were in for a tough battle. We didn't play as well as we could have done. Our skills with the ball and first innings batting have been below par. It's a cause for concern. New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum said: "[I've got] mixed emotions. I'm incredibly proud of our boys. We pretty much tried everything. We came up against some of the best players going around at the moment. Today they were outstanding. We tried everything but came up just short. It was a wonderful Test match. We're certainly trending in the right direction, That's very pleasing. McCullum singled out the performance of Peter Fulton who, having had a period out of the side, scored a century in each innings to set up New Zealand's ultimately fruitless victory push. "Outstanding," he said. I'm absolutely delighted for Peter. It's a lovely story - a guy who had a crack at Test cricket, found himself on the outside for a while, and for him to play as well as he did was a great story.