Smith refuses to give up hope

Graeme Smith was a frustrated South African captain, as he watched his prospects of a series-levelling victory slip every further down the drainage ditch on the third day at Centurion. Though South Africa extracted the crucial wicket of Andrew Strauss with minutes of the day's play remaining, they have just six more sessions in which to force a result, and there is the prospect of more bad weather to come.

"It's a bit like the end of the world out there," said Smith, as a torrential downpour battered at the windows during his end-of-day press conference. "That's the biggest storm I've seen in these parts for a while. As a team, we are prepared to do a lot of things to win, but taking on lightning is not one of them."

Though he accepted that his chances of victory were "diminishing", Smith maintained an upbeat front. "All this stop-starting is frustrating because we've got England under pressure," he said. "But we're still positive. We've got to be. If we bowl well again tomorrow, then we will go for it. We're not giving up."

At the fifth time of asking, South Africa have produced their most aggressive bowling performance of the series, and Smith put a lot of that down to Andre Nel, whose late scalp of Strauss tilted the day's balance back in South Africa's favour. "The guys were hungry today and knew what they had to do," said Smith. "With the five bowlers, we've been able to attack for longer, and there's a bit of turn in the wicket as well, so we've got options tomorrow."

For Nel, it was a successful return to international cricket after a lengthy injury lay-off, and Smith said that his eagerness to get back in the thick of things was plain to see. "I try not to spend too much time around Nella when we're in the dressing-room," he joked. "You can see his feet twitching when it gets close to his time to bowl. But it's nice to have good back-up for Polly and Makhaya, and he's come back well from his injury. When he's 120 percent fit, I'd like to see him bowl nice and quick.

"We've had a few disappointments in this series," admitted Smith, who blamed South Africa's capitulation on the final day at The Wanderers, rather than their misfortune with the weather here, as the turning point of the series. "We could have come here even-stevens and ready to win here," he said. "Instead, there was that crucial three-and-a-half hours on the final day. We could have won the series elsewhere, but if we don't get back on the field tomorrow, we'll know where we lost the series."