By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent at Headingley

On the day England desperately needed to bowl with accuracy and discipline, they produced their worst effort for many years.

It was so bad, so lacking the basic requirements needed to bowl at this level that it needed to be seen to be believed.

Hall must have thought all his Christmases had come at once

And this on a pitch that is deteriorating frighteningly quickly.

Ultimately England's woeful bowling will cost them the match.

It was merely bad in the first innings in which South Africa's last three wickets added 200 precious runs.

In their second, they put on 163 as, in the final 40 chaotic overs of the innings, South Africa scored 201 runs.

England's bowlers should have prospered on this surface

In the morning session, the ball went over the rope new fewer than 23 times and even the experienced Martin Bicknell was culpable.

This sorry performance must not detract from Andrew's Hall's innings.

True, he must have thought all his Christmases had come at once, but he ruthlessly despatched the dross that came his way and raced to 99 from only 87 balls.

When Kirtley uprooted Pretorius's middle stump with a shooter, Hall became only the fifth man in Test history to be stranded one short of a century.

It was difficult, as a commentator, to convey the poor quality of the pitch to the listeners while the ball was being smashed around Headingley.

In fact, it was put in its true context when England's batsmen came to have their turn.

Stewart's reaction was clearly a case of dissent

Set 401 to win, they were struggling from the moment Gibbs pulled off a brilliant slip catch to remove Trescothick in the fifth over, and the procession began.

Hussain could argue that he was struck fractionally outside the off stump when Kallis successfully appealed for lbw.

But Stewart's reaction to umpire Taufell's accurate decision for caught behind was a clear case of dissent. Sadly, as is usually the case, this went unpunished.

So, barring a miracle, England will lose the match on the final day and go 2-1 down in the series.

They might reflect that with the opposition missing their most important player and 142-7 at one point they blew their chance.

They would be right.