South Africa v England: We're capable of avoiding defeat at Centurion, says James Anderson

Englands batsman James Taylor, ducks a bouncer from South Africas bowler Kagiso Rabada, on the fourth day at Centurion. Picture: AP /Themba Hadebe.

Anderson has been present during some of England’s most memorable rearguards of recent years, memorably shutting out Australia alongside Monty Panesar at Cardiff in 2009 as well as featuring in backs-to-the-wall efforts twice on England’s last tour of South Africa and again in Auckland three years ago.

England are staring down the barrel at Centurion, on 52-3 in pursuit of a notional 382 on a pitch with unpredictable bounce and plenty of turn for the spinners.

Paul Collingwood and Graham Onions ensured a stalemate with England nine down on the same ground six years ago and Anderson believes the mindset in the away dressing room is perfect for another get away.

“We’ll be giving it a good go,” he said. “Obviously it will be a tough task for us – especially on that pitch, which we’ve seen plenty of deterioration on.

“The batsmen we’ve got left are positive naturally, just in attitude and character.

“It’s not just the way people go about scoring runs it’s actually positive in the fact we’ve got people who know they can bat a whole day in a Test. We’ve got the skill to do it.”

Anderson began day four in memorable fashion at SuperSport Park, dismissing Stephen Cook early and then sending home captain AB de Villiers packing with probably his best ball of the tour, a classic full-pitch inswinger.

In his pre-match press call De Villiers had seemingly suggested Anderson had “lost some pace over the years”, so consigning him to a third successive duck was a matter of personal pride.

“It was nice to get the captain out,” he said when asked.

“I’m sure the smile on your face is referring to the comments that he made before the game, which were mentioned in the huddle, so yeah, it’s nice to get him out early because he’s a dangerous player.”