Sian Honnor and Amy Pharaoh were pushed to the final bowl but held their nerve to secure a place in the semi-finals of the bowls in Glasgow.
A double Commonwealth champion, Honnor was chosen as flagbearer for these Games, but the biggest pressure of all came in a winner-takes-all clash with Indian pair Rupa Rani Tirkey and Pinki.
Honnor and Pharaoh had tasted defeat for the first time against South Africa earlier in the day and then found themselves in a real battle with the Indian duo, dropping the first set.
But they bounced back to take the second and set up a tie break, knowing their place in the semi-finals was on the line.
That went down to the wire, but with the pressure on, Honnor showed all her experience and kept her hopes of a third Commonwealth title alive.
She said: “This format is incredibly tough, I really don't think that could be underestimated. It was nip and tuck in the first set, we lost by one shot in the end.
“The second set was a lot more convincing and we both played some good ends at the right time and together importantly so that gave us confidence going into the tie-break.
“We knew that they were playing similar lengths to us so we were very happy to win the toss and give the jack away as well but yeah not really ideal for it to come down to the last bowl when you're having to draw to the ditch so just relieved to have not been short.
“I just took my time I tried to stay as calm as possible and breathe and thankfully it was enough.”
Pharaoh echoed that relief, with the Team England women’s pair straight into knockout action on Monday.
She added: “We knew that was a big game, that was basically the quarter final, whoever won that was going through which is good because it's in your hands and we felt like we always had a chance even having lost the first set we still felt like we were well in the game and we strung some good ends together so yeah just relieved.”
Meanwhile, Sam Tolchard was a 2-0 win over Jamaica’s Robert Simpson to stay on track for a place in the semi-finals.
He will take on home favourite Jason Banks in his final round robin match, and is relishing the atmosphere.
He said: “I'm really looking forward to it. I said after losing the first game I had effectively four cup finals. Hopefully if I can win that one [against Banks] it'll be another two. It should be great - England-Scotland are always the best games to play in.”
In the evening, there was heartbreak for Ron Homer and Sally-Ann Lewis-Wall as their medal hopes in the para mixed pairs B2-3 took a dent in a tie-break defeat to Australia.
They fought back after losing the first set 7-4 to win the second 4-3 and force a deciding end, which was clinched by Australian duo Jacqueline Hudson and Jake Fehlberg.
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