Series business for England

Cricket: In the end it was realism rather than dreams that dominated the final day of what has been an intense series of rapidly changing fortunes.

There was little chance of a result to a Test that had lost so much time to the weather. With England in control of the match and therefore the destiny of the series, it was always going to be in the hands of Graeme Smith to make all the running.

South Africa's captain tried, his team batting through half of the last day before setting England a gettable target of 185 in 44 overs. But England were not about to throw away seven weeks' hard grind and a 2-1 lead in pursuit of a bit of sport. Business is business: advantage to them and no imperative to try to win the game.

It became a bit more intense when the wickets of Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick and Rob Key had gone for 20 as Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock put heart and soul into one final effort. There was little more than a bit of digging in for the batsmen to do, however, and even though Ntini was to return and claim the wicket of Graham Thorpe, time was running out.

Michael Vaughan steered his ship to port, seeing out 26 overs for 26 runs, 10 of the overs in the company of Andrew Flintoff, whose last act on a cricket field this was to be for some months. He heads home today for an operation on his ankle.

South Africa took it beyond the usual agreement time for a draw and continued until midway through the last hour, but the light, or lack of it, had the final say with England on 73 for four.

This is a triumph for Vaughan, his fifth success in seven series as captain - only the one defeat, by Sri Lanka - and of course the first by an England team in South Africa in the 40 years since MJK Smith's team took the first Test and then batted out the others.

England came here, after a resounding summer, to measure themselves against more resilient opponents - particularly defiant in their own country - and if South Africa are not the team they were, they gave Vaughan's team a run for their money.

This is a notable achievement and when the team return to England - most of them after the one-day series - it will be officially as the second-best side in the world, an accolade they can truly believe they have earned.

That is still a long way from being top dog, however. There will be a lot of soul-searching before England can even begin to wonder how they are going to mount an effective challenge against Australia for the Ashes this summer.

South Africa dominated the early part of the last day with Jacques Kallis and the newcomer AB de Villiers making it unscathed through the morning session and into the afternoon, compiling a third-wicket stand of 238. After the triple-century opening partnership Smith and Herschelle Gibbs claimed off West Indies last year, this stand was the second highest for any wicket on this ground.

Kallis was to complete his third century of the series and 20th of his Test career, an inevitability it seemed after a rousing start on Monday evening. It promised more, however, and after reaching three figures he failed to break sweat, scoring only 16 more runs in the following 12 overs at a time when his side needed to push on.

When Smith's declaration came, Kallis had spent getting on for five hours over his unbeaten 136, 90 minutes of which was spent over the final 34 runs. By that time, though, he had amassed 625 runs for the series, a figure exceeded for South Africa against England only by Smith's 714 in England two years ago.

More telling for South Africa was the maiden Test century for De Villiers, who had come so close in the first innings before faltering as England bore down on him.

No such problem this time around: the 20-year-old batted beautifully, reaching 100 with a thumping square cut.

Upon reaching 109, with 11 fours and a six, while Kallis was apparently still following his own agenda, De Villiers sacrificed himself, well caught by Matthew Hoggard off a swirler at third man to give Simon Jones his first wicket of the innings. Steve Harmison, meanwhile, had been flogging away, once more looking as if he would finish wicketless for the fifth time in six innings.

Instead Smith, going for a huge shot, gifted him a wicket with a skier to backward point where the substitute Paul Collingwood made an excellent catch, and then Jacques Rudolph, who has shown more dash than substance in this series, got a snorter that pitched on the left-hander's leg stump, squared him up and removed the off bail.

Scoreboard

Overnight: England 359 (G P Thorpe 86, A Flintoff 77, G O Jones 50; A Nel 6-81). South Africa 247 (A B de Villiers 92; S P Jones 4-47, A Flintoff 4-44) and 59-2.

SOUTH AFRICA (second innings)

A B de Villiers c Hoggard b S P Jones 109

J H Kallis not out 136

G C Smith c sub b Harmison 3

J A Rudolph b Harmison 2

M V Boucher c Trescothick b Hoggard 6

Extras b2 lb14 w2 nb9 pens 0 27

Total 6 wkts dec (73 overs) 296

Fall: 1-17 2-29 3-256 4-267 5-277 6-296

Did Not Bat: S M Pollock, N Boje, M Ntini

Bowling: Hoggard 14 2 51 1 Flintoff 13 2 46 2 Giles 11 1 50 0 S P Jones 19 2 74 1 Harmison 16 2 59 2

ENGLAND (second innings)

M E Trescothick b Ntini 7

A J Strauss c Kallis b Ntini 0

R W T Key lbw b Pollock 9

M P Vaughan not out 26

G P Thorpe c Gibbs b Ntini 8

A Flintoff not out 14

Extras lb7 nb2 pens 0 9

Total 4 wkts (41.2 overs) 73

Fall: 1-0 2-16 3-20 4-45

Did Not Bat: G O Jones, A F Giles, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, S P Jones.

Bowling: Nel 12 5 24 0 Ntini 11 6 12 3 Pollock 7 3 9 1 Smith 3 1 8 0 Hall 5.2 2 9 0 Boje 1 1 0 0 Kallis 2 0 4 0