Woeful England hammered in fourth Test

However, they will want to finish off on a high and avoiding defeat here would achieve that.

Continuing on the final day on 52-3, there was little resistance for England at SuperSport Park.

But Amla held firm on 50 not out to nudge England’s eventual fourth-innings chase ever upwards. “I’m not going to do this every day”.

It was then left to the impressive young fast bowler Rabada to clean up the English tail.

“It’s just down to attitude and character”.

“It proves your keeping can improve so Jonny needs to get to that standard because we can’t afford drops like that in Test matches – but his batting has helped win the series”. With this series over for him with the bat, he’ll have to wait until the first test of the English summer in May at least to get to the milestone.

Nearing a 200-run lead already, South Africa’s biggest problem may turn out to be a hamstring injury to seam bowler Kyle Abbott, possibly ruling him out of bowling for the rest of the game and reducing South Africa to a two-man seam attack. Rabada trapped Hales lbw and also tempted Compton into an edge behind.

Cook did not last much longer before pushing back a return catch to Morne Morkel after scoring five.

England were at least partial authors of their own downfall. “We haven’t quite been on it and had to try hang in there”.

At that stage South Africa were 49-3, a lead of 182. England had lasted barely an hour of the fifth day.

As Rabada took wickets on the final morning, Ntini, now a commentator in South Africa, shouted “Come on Rabada, get 13!” from the stands. “It was nice to get the captain out”, he said. “I’m sure the smile on your face is referring to his comments before the game which was mentioned in the huddle”.

The touring side bowled well in the morning session, with James Anderson grabbing two early wickets and Ben Stokes another.

England have been crushed here in the final Test but will be happy with their performance overall in this series. “Jacques Kallis used to do that for South Africa, it’s a massive factor”.

Bavuma revealed, however, that he and Amla had been told they had a maximum of eight overs in which to score as many runs as they could.

The match will be well-remembered for a number of reasons, especially for the South Africans.

Despite losing the series, De Villiers felt the win was “definitely a step in the right direction, with a bit of experience coming into the side, a bit of youth and a lot of talent”.