Thorpe's marathon innings was the cornerstone for England

Andrew Flintoff hit a sparkling 77 and added two top-order wickets as England laid the foundations to wrap up a Test series victory against South Africa.

At stumps on day four in Centurion, South Africa were 59-2, trailing by 53 runs after England had converted their overnight 114-4 into 359 all out.

Flintoff added 141 with Graham Thorpe (86) before Geraint Jones (50) and Ashley Giles (39) upped the tempo.

Paceman Andre Nel carried the rest of South Africa's bowlers with 6-81.

With the series score 2-1 to England, either a draw or a victory on Tuesday would guarantee the tourists their first Test series win in South Africa for 40 years.

A South African victory does not look possible with England's batsmen having lasted for most of the day.

The first session, a crucial two-and-a-half hour period, saw England add just 85 runs.

We are aiming to win this series 3-1 Geraint Jones Quotes: Day four reaction

Vitally, they did not lose a wicket as Flintoff and Thorpe defied the seam threat of Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini and then dug in against the spin of Nicky Boje and Graeme Smith.

South African captain Smith was unlucky at times. He had no less than three appeals for lbw against Thorpe soon after the Surrey veteran had reached his fifty.

At least one of them might have been given out on a different day, especially if Smith had been bowling at the end umpired by Aleem Dar rather than the less forgiving Steve Bucknor.

Flintoff restrained himself impressively, scoring just 24 runs in the first two hours of his innings.

Finally, with the sun beating down on South Africa's bowlers after lunch, and the second new ball pinging nicely off what had been a sluggish, though true wicket, Flintoff got going.

Andre Nel had a good day, unlike most of the South Africans

He was particularly severe on Ntini, who was pulled for one six and two fours, but there was also a back-foot force off the same bowler that whistled to the cover boundary.

Eventually, however, the fun had to end.

Thorpe was the first to go, comprehensively yorked by Nel after spending more than five and a half hours at the crease.

Flintoff fenced at Andrew Hall to be caught behind moments later, but the sniff of a South African revival was swept away by Jones and Giles.

Both batsmen found the inconsistent length of Hall to their liking as they opened their accounts with some sweet boundaries.

Boje then went the distance, Jones lofting him down the ground for two sixes and Giles slog-sweeping him into one of the grassy banks square of the wicket for a third.

Realistically, by tea there was no hope of South Africa engineering a positive result with 130 runs added in the session to make it 329-6.

Jones hit one more six before edging Nel to first slip and Giles had his leg stump removed by the same bowler.

Between them, they had added 78 in one ball short of 17 overs.

I actually expect South Africa to tough out the last day From Ray Have your say on TMS

Nel's fifth wicket came when Matthew Hoggard offered another slip catch and his sixth came when Bucknor finally gave South Africa an lbw decision, Steve Harmison the man to be dismissed.

Nel had taken five of the six England wickets to fall in the day.

South Africa had 19 overs to face before stumps and Michael Vaughan's decision to open with Flintoff rather than Harmison paid instant dividends when Herschelle Gibbs edged a pacy delivery to wicket-keeper Jones.

At 17-1, out came Hall, who had batted at nine in the first innings.

The experiment back-fired as Flintoff bowled him off his pads and by stumps South Africa were not in terribly good shape, though AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis at least looked reasonably secure.

Kallis even had the confidence to loft Giles straight down the ground for six.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt.), Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Rudolph, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher (wkt), Andrew Hall, Nicky Boje, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel.

England: Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Robert Key, Michael Vaughan (capt.), Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wkt), Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones.

Umpires: SA Bucknor (WI), Aleem Dar (Pkn)