England don't want to be nearly-men – Prior

Matt Prior yesterday warned there will be no hint of a "comfort zone" for Andrew Strauss's tourists, as they acclimatise to altitude again after three weeks at sea level in preparation for Thursday's final match of four. That adjustment is a crucial one to the wicketkeeper-batsman, who must retune his lung capacity and reactions to the rarefied atmosphere.

All his efforts will be to one end, though – to make sure England convert their hard-fought 1-0 lead into a winning margin over hosts who were ranked No 1 in the world until shortly before the series began.

Prior was not referring to the Highveld conditions when he said: "This is nowhere near a comfort zone. We didn't come here to draw a series; we came here to win one."

That much has been made clear publicly and privately by England since, for the second time in three Tests, they held on last week in Cape Town with nine wickets down to deny South Africa victory.

"The coach had a long chat with us this morning and was pretty adamant on that," Prior added "We don't want to be the nearly men. We want to be guys that go back saying, 'we've had a fantastic winter – we won the one-dayers and we've won the Test series', not, 'we nearly won the Test series'."

Meanwhile, national selector Geoff Miller accepts there may be a case for resting captain Strauss from the forthcoming tour of Bangladesh.

England are expected to name their squads to tour the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh either immediately or shortly after the conclusion of their Test series against South Africa next week and there have been suggestions several high-profile players may be considered for a sabbatical.

"We're in discussion," said Miller. "There might be one or two rested. Captaincy-wise, that is another area we can look at. There is an opportunity to rest if we need to do that."