England 400 and 248 (Joe Root 58, Beuran Hendricks 5-64) beat South Africa 183 and 274 (Rassie van der Dussen 98, Mark Wood 4-54) by 191 runs.

By teatime on day four of South Africa’s final Test match with England, the home side’s chances of saving the series had deteriorated as badly as the Wanderers pitch.  

With a 466-run target ahead of them, South Africa needed to keep things boring on the day. The leaves, the blocks and staying patient would’ve been on the agenda. And that’s exactly what they did for the first hour in the day when they scored just 34, but more importantly saw off the new ball.

However, one of the opening pair, Pieter Malan, lost his patience after the drinks break. Chris Woakes floated one outside off and the opener chased that delivery to be caught in the slips. 

There was more drama from there on as Rassie van der Dussen survived two LBW calls.

In the 16th over, he was given out LBW as Woakes pinged him on the back pad. The ball, however, was going over off-stump and Van der Dussen successfully reviewed the decision. The very next ball, he was pinged on the pads again but this time an inside edge saved him. 

There wasn’t much from there on as he took on Joe Root to collect a few quick runs and would become a substantial thorn in England’s side.

Dean Elgar dug in for 73 deliveries and fell with fewer than five minutes left for the lunch break. Ben Stokes banged one in and had the left-hander fending at the delivery. Elgar lobbed an easy catch back to the all-rounder to hand England the session.

Van der Dussen was joined by his captain after the break and continued to fight with a half-century, putting up a 92-run partnership with his skipper for the third wicket. 

He brought up his highest score in Test cricket with a six and a boundary against Joe Denly in the 51st over as he played the field beautifully. Even in the first session, when Joe Root brought himself on to attack Van der Dussen, he immediately brought out sweeps to nullify the ploy and picked up quick runs.

Root then called on his destroyer-in-chief, Stokes. The all-rounder, who was named player of the series after the match, once again managed to strike and knock off the South Africa captain. 

He got the ball to nip in and stay low before clipping the bottom of the bat and castling off-stump as Du Plessis fell for 35 — one run short of his highest score of the series. 

More importantly, a partnership that might have meant England would have had to bowl on the final day was torn.

In the very next over, Mark Wood ended Van der Dussen’s resistance to leave the batsman heartbroken. 

He had steadily moved to 98 and looked set to grab his maiden Test ton. Trying to play a booming drive on the up, he drove the delivery straight to cover, with Stuart Broad’s grateful hands waiting to end his 138-ball stay. 

The Barmy Army, which had been silent throughout the day suddenly came to life on a boiling hot Johannesburg afternoon. England’s tails were up, and the travelling fans, going through their repertoire of songs created a cauldron-like environment to get the English bowlers cooking.

From then on, the writing was on the wall as the Proteas wickets fell at regular intervals.

Bavuma, Pretorius and Philander all went as quickly as they’d come. When the series’ leading run scorer, De Kock, was caught at mid-off by Woakes off the bowling of Wood, the writing was on the wall for South Africa. 

A mix-up between Anrich Nortje and Beuran Hendricks that resulted in the latter being run out summed up some of the haplessness that had bedevilled South Africa in this series.

Soon after, the Proteas were bowled out for 274, failing once again to pass the 300-run mark in the series (and the 13th time in a row), and England clinched an emphatic 191-run victory to seal the series 3-1. 

Along with the loss, the South African side picked up some unwanted records, including losing two consecutive series at home for the first time since 1950. It was also the first time since the 1895/6 season that no South African batsman scored a century at home in a series.

To compound their misery, after the match the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that it had fined the Proteas players 60% each of their match fee for a slow over-rate in the fourth Test. Over and above the fine, the ICC also docked six World Test Championship points from the team who sit in seventh place on the log of the nine-team tournament.

It was under these conditions that one of the world’s finest bowlers, Philander, bowed out of international cricket. He received applause from the English players and a guard of honour from his teammates as he walked off the field for the last time as a South African player.

His captain, Du Plessis, may soon be joining him in retirement, with Director of Cricket Graeme Smith having told the media at a briefing last week that he would sit down with Du Plessis to get a sense of what his future plans are. 

For now, South Africa will look to put this loss aside and gear up for the upcoming one-day international series against England, which starts on 2 February 2020. DM