The prospect of winning their first Test series in England since they were readmitted to the international arena in 1991 has been a driving force for South Africa since the first day of the tour and Graeme Smith, the captain, highlighted the character in the team as a significant reason for the victory that has put them on the road to achieving their goal.

Mental strength showed itself in the discipline of Ashwell Prince, the man of the match for his innings of 149 in South Africa’s ten-wicket victory at Headingley, and A. B. de Villiers in their 212-run stand for the fifth wicket on Saturday and Sunday. This was especially so in the case of De Villiers, who was booed by the crowd on Friday after he claimed a low catch against Andrew Strauss when the ball had hit the ground. De Villiers went on to make 174.

“I think we did better at the big moments,” Smith, who overtook Hansie Cronje as South Africa’s most successful captain with his 28th win, said. “We handled the things that happened in this game in a mature way. No one gets used to the abuse and I thought that AB played a real man’s innings.”

Michael Vaughan, the England captain, said that his own face-to-face confrontation with De Villiers during lunch on Friday had been “completely blown out of proportion.”.

Smith faced as many questions about the home side’s tactics as his own. He nibbled at a few. “It is not our place to judge England’s selections,” he said. “We just play against the team we are put up against.”

He said that Darren Pattinson “was not somebody we had prepared for”. Asked whether the position of Tim Ambrose, the wicketkeeper, at No 6 had left England vulnerable, Smith said: “Whenever you bat a ’keeper in that position, there is an opportunity if you get a couple of early wickets. We put him under pressure. We are not stupid, we read the papers and knew there was pressure on him.”