At 6.26pm, with the stands three-quarters empty and warm sunlight enveloping the ground, South Africa completed the thrashing that had seemed inevitable once they had bundled out England for 203 on the first day of this match.

With his side needing nine runs to complete a ten-wicket victory, it was fitting that Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, should be in the middle because it was his second-innings hundred that began the fightback in the first Test at Lord's. If this forceful character from the Western Cape has any say in the matter, it will not be complete until the series has been won next month.

The result yesterday was nothing less than either team deserved. South Africa were a class apart, in the way their fast bowlers ran in and put England's batsmen under constant pressure, the way their batsmen focused on the strict disciplines required to succeed at Headingley and in their close catching, which, one glaring error from A. B. de Villiers apart, was outstanding. Mark Boucher, the wicketkeeper, took nine catches in the match to equal his own South Africa record.

England were poor. Despite conceding more than 500 runs, though, the bowlers could look at themselves in the mirror yesterday evening without blushing. Theirs was never less than a wholehearted effort. The same cannot be said of the specialist batsmen, who scored only one half-century between them on a pitch that, while showing signs of wear on the fourth day, was always decent for batting. James Anderson's stubborn resistance early in the day and Stuart Broad's magnificent late flourish at its end were ample evidence of that.

The England selectors will have to get their thinking caps on before Saturday, when they announce the team for next week's third Test at Edgbaston. The mood has swung rapidly against Michael Vaughan, who averages less than 30 in his past dozen Tests, but this is premature in the extreme. It is only five Test matches ago that he scored a hundred and he is the best candidate to lead the team.

The most important issue to resolve is Andrew Flintoff's position. He played nicely for 38 yesterday, calmly at first and then with more urgency, so that on the 27th anniversary of Headingley 1981, memories were recalled of that special day when Ian Botham put the Australia attack to the sword to set up a famous victory. Memory turned to mirage when Flintoff steered a ball from Morne Morkel to second slip. Forty overs, one wicket and two insubstantial innings will remind the England all-rounder that Test cricket is a tough business.

His return was supposed to give England balance, but it has unbalanced them. They must decide whether he is a genuine all-rounder, in which case he must bat No 6 and be expected to play like a batsman and not a slogger, or whether he is a bowler who bats, in which case they must find a No 6. My preference is for the former. Such a move may focus the minds of the specialist batsmen, who were guilty of not adapting to conditions that were so obviously different from those at Lord's.

Alastair Cook, who fought hard for nearly five hours in the second innings, can be absolved from blame yesterday, but neither Ian Bell, who was brilliantly caught in the gully by a spring-heeled De Villiers, nor Kevin Pietersen could provide the kind of heroics that were needed if England were going to extricate themselves from the mess created over the first three days.

Things began well for England yesterday, the morning session meandering along with Cook and Anderson obdurate in benign conditions. The colour of events changed for good 40 minutes before the lunch break when Dale Steyn decided to rough up Anderson. The intensity increased several notches thereafter and by the time the temperature had cooled, Anderson and Pietersen were back in the pavilion and the game was as good as gone.

It was a thrilling passage of play. Anderson first took a heavy blow to the wrist and, next ball, a sickening blow to the grille as he ducked into a rapid, skiddy bouncer. He fell to his hands and knees - not that he would have wanted to plant a smacker on the Headingley turf, so much grief has it brought him these past four days. Thankfully, his chiselled features, which are known to reduce female observers to jelly, remained intact.

He took an eight count, composed himself, called for a new helmet and bravely continued. Steyn's tactics had done the trick, though, as in the next over Anderson was trapped, back when he should have been forward, and plumb in front. In its own way, and remembering that Anderson was a rabbit of Watership Down proportions when he came into the England team five years ago, this was 113 minutes of heroic resistance. He left to a standing ovation from the crowd, who had come to realise that here was an England cricketer who had grown in substance before their eyes.

They stayed on their feet to welcome Pietersen to the crease and to implore him to provide something substantial as well. What we got was thrilling, certainly, but all too fleeting. Maybe watching Steyn dismantle Anderson had affected Pietersen, too, because he was all adrenalin at the crease.

He glanced his first ball to fine leg for four, smashed his second down the ground for another and then took a breath after his third, which went to mid-on for a single. Smith brought on Jacques Kallis, when Morkel would have been the logical choice. Kallis offered Pietersen the chance to drive with his first ball; it was gratefully accepted and seconds later was returned by the ballboys in front of the Western Terrace.

The captain's intuition was inspired, though, as Pietersen tried to withdraw his bat inside the line of his fifth ball and feathered it to Boucher. The reaction of the South Africa fielders was almost primeval in its intensity; the game, they now felt, was as good as won. It was.