England within reach of victory

Having failed to reach 250 in the first innings of their two previous Tests, the temptation for new captain Pietersen must have been to strengthen the batting line-up in his first match in charge.

But Pietersen instead took the bold approach and fielded an extra bowler, which paid off on the fourth day with his multi-faceted attack dismissing South Africa for 318 to set up a victory target of 197 at the Brit Oval.

England were grateful for Steve Harmison's hostility as he delivered a brilliant eight-over spell from the Pavilion End which removed Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis and set the tone for England's attack for the remainder of the day.

Amla's aggressive innings the previous day had gone a long way towards wiping out South Africa's deficit, but he lasted only three overs on Sunday morning before Harmison tested him with a short delivery which he fended behind and Tim Ambrose took an impressive diving catch to his right.

Desperate not to play any risky shots, Kallis played within himself throughout until he was tempted by a wide delivery from Harmison which he drove straight to Pietersen at mid-off, who dropped the low chance. But if evidence were needed that Pietersen is enjoying a honeymoon as captain, it was confirmed when Kallis drove the next delivery low to third slip.

Just six overs later Ashwell Prince played a loose shot outside off-stump off Andrew Flintoff which flew straight to Andrew Strauss at slip.

That breakthrough gave England an opportunity to tear into South Africa's middle order and they provided little resistance initially with Mark Boucher being surprised by the extra bounce from James Anderson to give a looping catch to point, while Morne Morkel gave a catch to short leg off the glove facing Monty Panesar.

Just as England began to think about an extra day off prior to the start of the NatWest one-day series next week, they were confronted with a defiant 95-run partnership between AB de Villiers and Paul Harris.

Harris then fell and despite battling for nearly four hours, de Villiers failed to add to his total and was bowled advancing down the pitch to Panesar while Makhaya Ntini gave slip catching practice to Paul Collingwood off Stuart Broad in the next over to end the innings.