Not cricket. ``I was trying to think about everything apart from the game. The trout I want to catch tomorrow when I go fishing; the house I'm building; chatting to my mates back home about the Welsh rugby tour in South Africa.

``Then, when Allan Donald came striding in, I switched back on. That's the way the top-order batsmen tell me they work.''

Last season Croft was noticeably vulnerable to the short-pitched ball from the Australian bowlers. Yet yesterday, for more than two hours, he dealt unflinchingly with everything that Donald put down at him.

Alec Stewart praised Croft, not only for his durability and his courage, but also for the way he worked on playing the bouncer during the winter.

Croft said: ``I owe a great deal to Graham Gooch for his advice and coaching on how to deal with the short ball. That's what's so good having ex-England players around.

``There was a failing in the lower order against Australia last year so now we bowlers have to take our turns in the nets and practise seriously. It's so important - as this game proved. I like to think that today we've paid back a little bit of the debt we may have owed.''

Confusion continued to reign about the extra over bowled after the game. Stewart and his team-mates all cheered and clapped from the balcony when three overs were left because they thought that was the end.

But Croft said: ``I got different information out in the middle. One umpire said we finished at 5.50pm. Then after I had played out the fourth over the information came that we had to play down to two.''

The laws are specific in stating that two overs are lost between innings and ``any over left uncompleted at the end of an innings to be excluded''.

So the last six balls Paul Adams bowled to Croft were unnecessary. England had already drawn. But Croft didn't mind: ``I wasn't sure and didn't feel safe until I survived the last ball from Adams.''

And what ``home truths'' had Stewart told the side after Saturday's abysmal showing? Croft revealed: ``He said, 'Remember the lions on your chest and if you go down, go down fighting.''