Durban, Dec. 26 (ANI): England off-spinner Graham Swann has said that the past 12 months have been a dream.

“In my first year of Test cricket, I’ve taken 53 wickets and averaged 36 with the bat. And I have an Ashes winner’s medal. I wouldn’t swap it for the world,” he says in a column for The Sun.”The weird thing about Test cricket is that it is the same game, it’s the pressure that is different,” he adds.He says that it has been an incredible year and that he hopes to recapture the spirit of the Ashes as England ties to end 2009 with a bang.He also recalls the thrilling, nerve-wracking draw in the First Test against South Africa at the Centurion, which he describes as being similar to the draw England achieved against Australia in the opening Test in Cardiff, Wales earlier this year.”The atmosphere in the dressing-room in the closing over last Sunday was unbearably tense. We seemed to be cruising to a draw when suddenly everything went crazy with the new ball. All of a sudden there were nicks and lbw’s. When I was leg before, Paul Collingwood and Graham Onions had 19 balls to survive. After I was out, I was so anxious I couldn’t sit in the dressing-room,” he says.

“I was proud to take five wickets in the first innings, score 85 and be named man of the match. You don’t usually get that award when your team has been on the rough end of things,” he concludes. (ANI)