James Anderson ruled out of first Test with calf strain

On his day, de Villiers is the best player on the planet and is well capable of racking up a double century. “Hopefully in the next day or two we’ll find out the extent of that”.

A decision on his involvement in the first Test in Durban is unlikely to be taken until Thursday.

When was the last time England were redeemed by their playing style in the shorter format?

Woakes however bowled some fine outswingers in his first spell of the tour – although they would be swinging back into South Africa’s openers. For both teams, there are numerous talking points.

South Africa and England resume their great rivalry on Boxing Day at Kingsmead. Vernon Philander (ankle) is ruled out. All the batters have showed some ability in both games.

The 33-year-old, England’s leading Test wicket-taker, is crucial to the touring side’s prospects in the four-match series and will be waiting nervously for the results, which have been sent back to England for analysis. In fact, the Yorkshire star was England’s top scorer in Test matches in 2015 while he racked up 2,131 runs in all formats at an average of 52 – an impressive feat.

Woakes, who has played four Tests, joined Broad and Steven Finn for a full bowling session in the nets on Christmas Eve, while fellow seamers Chris Jordan and Mark Footitt worked on their outfielding in a separate group.

It will also be a good experience for England’s premier all-rounder Ben Stokes, who contributed with bat and ball against Australia but didn’t impress at all in the UAE, though he had impressive performances in the warm-up games. South Africa have never successfully replaced Graeme Smith – just as England are still looking out for the successor to Andrew Strauss. “It all depends on the wickets, I’m just going to go in and adapt my game: if it spins I’ll try and keep it as simple as I can and if it’s not spinning try and hold up an end”.

Trailing by 193 on first innings, they piled up 570-7 declared second time round and were just two wickets away from victory when bad light saved South Africa.