There was no time for prolonged English celebrations after that desperately tense win at Edgbaston in the second Test. The next match at Old Trafford started four days later

Matthew Hoggard England bowler

After such an intense experience as the Edgbaston game, it was crucial to be able to switch off from cricket for a couple of days. I went home and cut the grass, played with the dogs and had a couple of barbecues.

Simon Jones England bowler

We were on a high after Edgbaston and I was looking forward to playing at Old Trafford. It's a dry, coarse ground and one of the fastest pitches in the country.

England made 444 in their first innings, with 166 from Michael Vaughan, then Australia were bowled out for 302 as Simon Jones demonstrated his expertise with a reverse-swinging old ball to take six for 53

Jones Michael played exceptionally well and put us in a good position to attack with the ball. It started to reverse-swing quite early and I was feeling really strong. Adam Gilchrist was a key wicket. He'd got to 30, but I reversed one away, he snicked it behind and we were into the tail.

Justin Langer Australia batsman

Simon had reversed it a bit at Edgbaston, but it was really going at Old Trafford and that surprised us a bit. He wasn't someone I'd have lost much sleep over facing with the new ball. But as we saw throughout the series, he was very hard to face with the old ball and he had a huge impact on the series.

After Andrew Strauss had made 106, England set Australia 423 to win, creating an epic final day's play. Tickets were not sold in advance for the fifth day, so it was all pay on the gate, £10 for adults and £5 for juniors

Ken Grime Old Trafford match manager

At 5am, our overnight security people had alerted us that there were people camping outside the ground, so some of our stewards were at work by 6am. I set off to drive in from Bury about 6.50am and I was surprised when I saw a couple of lads wearing England shirts at our local bus stop. Then there were a few more at the next stop. And the stop after that. When I got to the ground at 7.40am, I wondered whether there might be a bit of a crowd gathering. A bit of a crowd? The ground was already surrounded.

Sharon Lomas Resident of nearby Chorlton-cum-Hardy

As a last-minute decision, I e-mailed my boss that morning and took an emergency holiday to go to the cricket, and Jolyon, my boyfriend, did the same. We got to the ground at 8.45 and couldn't believe that there were already queues round most of the ground.

Hoggard We crawled through the streets of Manchester in our cars on the way to the ground. It was a 15-minute drive from our hotel, but it took at least an hour. A few of the players tried to drive on the wrong side of the road to get past the blockages, but the traffic police stopped us. So we told them why we were in such a hurry and they let us carry on. But a couple of lads missed the warm-ups.

Lomas There was a brilliant atmosphere in the queues, with families, groups of blokes, all sorts of people. We were queueing near a family from Liverpool and another one from Newcastle. After two hours of queueing, we got to within 20 metres of the ground and they announced that it was full. We were devastated, but we just took our picnic back to our lounge and sat in front of the telly all day.

At least 10,000 were turned away from the ground, thousands more didn't even get that far. Those lucky enough to get in were rewarded when Andrew Flintoff and Jones once again confounded Australia's batsmen with reverse swing. But Ricky Ponting was holding firm while all fell around him

Michael Clarke Australia batsman

Ricky played one of the great knocks then. The best leaders can do that when the pressure is really on, and that was what Ricky did on that last day.

Jones It was reversing again and my favourite wicket of the game came when Michael Clarke shouldered arms and lost his off stump.

With ten overs remaining, Australia were 340 for eight as Brett Lee joined Ponting at the crease. As they attempted a quick single so that Ponting could get on strike, the Australia captain was almost run out by Stephen Peters, the substitute fielder from Worcestershire, who was on for Jones

Jones I had got a bit carried away in the field and forgotten to keep drinking fluids, so I cramped up and had to go off.

Peters There was a lot of sub fielding to be done in that series, so I was on and off a lot those last couple of days. I was fielding at wide mid-off and Brett Lee dropped one to cover. I threw to the 'keeper's end, where Ponting was struggling. It needed to be a direct hit, but I missed by a whisker. Funnily enough, he was run out in the next Test by Gary Pratt, another sub fielder. Maybe if I'd hit the stumps then, I'd have been on the open-top bus parade like he was!

Shortly afterwards, with four overs remaining, Ponting was caught behind down the leg side off Stephen Harmison for 156, but Lee and Glenn McGrath survived the last four overs, prompting euphoric celebrations on Australia's balcony

Peters The noise around the ground in those last few overs was incredible. I found myself fielding at sixth slip at the end, but I'm not sure we'd have heard anything if there'd been a nick behind.

Langer There was a lot made of the way we celebrated the draw, as though we'd just won. I guess it was unusual to see an Australian team doing that. But sometimes great victories can follow from a draw like that and emotions were running high.

Hoggard It was amazing to see them celebrating a draw so ecstatically. It used to be English teams that celebrated like that when they'd drawn against Australia. That was the moment when I knew we'd got to the Aussies. I had a fair idea then that the momentum of the whole series had shifted in our favour.