The drama and high tension at Super Sport Park, Centurion ended the way that most days on this tour have, with the umpires offering the light to the England batsmen, who graciously accepted with a well-deserved 2-1 series victory theirs after twenty-five gruelling days in South Africa. That South Africa fought hard until the very end will come only as a small consolation for a team that has conceded a home series defeat only to Australia since their return to the international fold in 1991. Day four started with South Africa nosing ahead, having grabbed four England wickets the previous day. But the long morning session proved futile as Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff built a steady and decisive 140-run partnership. Andre Nel though made his comeback Test memorable with his second five-wicket haul in Tests, with six wickets in the bag including that of Graham Thorpe on eighty-six and Flintoff on seventy-seven. A late charge by Ashley Giles in typical tail-wagging fashion steered England to 359, a sizeable lead of 112.

South Africa appeared to be at the crossroads after the early loss of Herschelle Gibbs. Caught between wanting to get past the England lead as quickly as possible while at the same time, remaining steady without losing too many wickets to set England a challenge in a desperate bid to make a match of a rain-marred Test and square the series. Andrew Hall, elevated to number three after batting at nine in the first innings, found himself in a rather problematic position and his loss left South Africa none the better.

But South Africa overcame the hiccups in an extremely essential partnership between AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis as the two centurions, despite criticism over their slow progress, saved the team from a potentially disastrous climax to the series. Jacques Kallis stood like a rock and once again proved South Africa's pillar of strength with an unbeaten and indispensable 136, his twentieth Test century. The twenty- year old de Villiers had missed out on a century in the first innings by eight runs but the second time round, he remained patient and eventually made a significant maiden Test century in a hard fought series. The 227-run partnership helped South Africa not only overcome the deficit, but also reach 296, when the skipper decided to declare, albeit with much too little time to have a realistic chance to bowl England out. England would have looked at a target of 185 in forty-four overs as a challenge. But there was sufficient play left in the day to set the cat amongst the pigeons, as Makhaya Ntini struck thrice and had England in a bit of turmoil at forty-five for four, before skipper Michael Vaughan steered his team to a safe draw and an unprecedented series victory against South Africa, a feat England last achieved in 1964-65 when Mike Smith's England beat South Africa 1-0.

Michael Vaughan with the Basil D'Oliveira Trophy.