This has been the toughest series by a long shot England captain Michael Vaughan

England, set 185 to win, batted out the final evening in Centurion after an early scare which reduced them to 20-3.

"These guys have put a hell of a lot of hard work in," Vaughan said after the 25th day of Test cricket in 40 days.

"Our batters, and especially our bowlers in the heat - it has been a real team effort."

The captain said England's fourth Test series win in a row - following West Indies (twice) and New Zealand - was their hardest.

"This has been the toughest series by a long shot," he confirmed.

"Maybe five back-to-back Tests is the reason why. But South Africa are a very hard team to beat, especially over here and every game has shown that.

Strauss and Vaughan have no time to rest with the ODI's looming

"It's been a fantastic, tense series to play in. There's been ups and downs, ebbs and flows, we've gone ahead and they've come back.

"This game was the same. We thought there wouldn't be a game on with the weather and then they get some early wickets today and put us under pressure. It's been the story of the series."

After some indifferent efforts with the bat this series, Vaughan showed true grit to marshal England to safety with an unbeaten 26 off 86 balls.

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"It's nice for me but the important thing is that there were two of us there at the end to make sure we got home," he added.

"They're never easy periods to bat through. The wicket was deteriorating a little bit and it was always going to be a difficult target to get and we just had to hang in there.

"Our innings in the first innings really set the game up.

"We could easily have ended up short there, but the likes of Thorpey, Freddie, Geraint Jones and Ashley Giles got us to a good total."

England batsman Andrew Strauss was dismissed for a duck on the final day but won the man-of-the-series award for his tally of 656 runs at 72.88.

"It's a great day for me and a great day for the England team. I felt in pretty good form all the way through," Strauss said.

"I didn't finish in the way I would have liked to, but we got the job done and we're going to have a good night tonight."