Banter and bonhomie define the series' duels

And as yesterday afternoon wore on there was no duel more intriguing, brief as it was, than that between the England left-arm spinner Ashley Giles and Australia's Shane Warne.

The leg-spinner has always fancied himself as something of an all-rounder, and certainly sees himself as being useful with the bat. He has a Test 99 to his name, scored against New Zealand at Perth in 2001-02.

Warne also scored a memorable 90 in the first innings at Old Trafford, underlining his quality as a run-maker. But he is also a fun-maker and he and Warwickshire's Giles enjoyed some great moments.

He faced only 15 balls from Giles, but there were enough drama and farce within that spell to have staged a West End show.

Warne began by carting Giles over long on for a monster six. Then Giles did him with some sharp turn, and followed that by foxing him through the air.

Smiles were exchanged. These were adversaries by now, each determined to outdo the other. Giles managed to get through the Australian's defence again, this time the ball rapping him on a pad.

The ball shot to the off side. Giles let out a loud yell, appealing for leg before wicket, Warne just took off for the other end, perhaps glad to have been released for the moment.

But the excitement of that ball was not yet over. Andrew Strauss threw the ball in hard to the striker's end, with Warne's partner Brett Lee struggling to make his ground. The wicket was broken by the keeper Geraint Jones. Another big appeal for the run-out. The umpire Aleem Dar called for the TV umpire. In the meantime Jones had trotted over to Dar and looked to be having second thoughts about whether he had managed to break the wicket with the ball in hand.

Lee, Warne and Giles waited apprehensively. Jones's honesty was rewarded because the technology revealed that Jones had broken the wicket without the ball. Lee not out.

Shortly afterwards the Warne-Giles tussle was resumed, with the Englishman managing to stifle Warne's spirited innings briefly, until the Victorian suddenly ventured up the wicket and pulled the ball high over the mid-wicket boundary for a second six.

Giles turned away to watch the ball flying through the air with a wry smile on his face, but he has been around long enough to know that what goes around, comes around. Two balls later Warne stepped well down the track, looking to repeat the shot. This time he missed the ball completely, and Geraint Jones, unlike his sad missed stumping the day before, gathered the ball and broke the wicket to end Warne's breezy contribution.

But that was not the end of the contests-within-the-contest. Andrew Flintoff and Lee then joined battle.

The pair's relationship throughout the course of the series has encapsulated all that is good about sport at the top level. There is by-play, banter and good old-fashioned bonhomie.

There was that touching moment at Edgbaston, when seconds after England had won the second Test, Lee dropped to the ground in obvious distress and suddenly there was Flintoff. He had forsaken the England celebrations to jog over and wrap a commiserating arm around Lee.

Yesterday there were a dozen balls which formed a cameo of the contest between the two. A Flintoff yorker or two had Lee digging deep at the last moment to keep the ball out. Then a bouncer. Another short ball. And after each delivery there were grins exchanged. Not all the banter is verbal between these two. But on this occasion Lee had the last word, smacking the final ball he received off Flintoff for four.