Ben Stokes wants the last laugh in his personal battle with '˜gutsy' Dean Elgar

England's Ben Stokes celebrates taking the wicket of South Africa's captain Faf du Plessis.

Stokes admits the gutsy Elgar got the better of him with a doughty innings of 136 in England’s victory at The Oval.

It eventually fell to Moeen Ali to end Elgar’s 228-ball stay, the initial victim in the off-spinner’s match-sealing hat-trick – the first in The Oval’s 137-year international history, and a most appropriate culmination of the famous venue’s 100th Test.

Stokes, however, has already noted “there’s always another opportunity”, having given Elgar plenty to think about in barnstorming second-innings spells that at one stage put him on a hat-trick too, with the wickets of Quinton de Kock and South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.

Try as he might, he could not knock over the stoic Elgar – despite peppering him with a series of fearsome short balls and bouncers that left the batsman bruised and battered.

Elgar appeared to relish the challenge, and the whole-hearted Stokes confirmed he most definitely did too.

“I got a bit of confidence when I saw the ball carrying through nicely to (wicketkeeper) Jonny (Bairstow), bowling the aggressive stuff at Dean Elgar, trying to get him on the back foot,” he said.

“I try to get in a battle with the batsman – which stirs me up.

“I just sort of make it, ‘I want to get you out, I want to try to get the better of you’.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t go that way – but there’s always another opportunity if it doesn’t go well in a certain spell.”

England always had the upper hand, largely because of man of the match Stokes’s first-innings century, and emerged with a 239-run win that means they will begin the fourth Investec Test in Manchester on Friday with an unassailable 2-1 series lead.

As for Stokes’s titanic individual set-to, though, he concedes round one went to the opposition.

“Elgar got the better of me when I tried to go hard at him (on Monday), whereas (the night before) I rapped him on the gloves a couple of times.

“I was trying to carry that same type of approach, but he came out with a different attitude and decided to take it on.

“It’s great to be part of an individual battle – which I felt we had throughout the game.

“Huge credit has to go to Dean actually, it was a seriously gutsy hundred.

“He managed to get through everything.”