Anderson produced his best figures in one-day internationals
England match-winner James Anderson said his career-best haul of 5-23 in the fourth one-day international in South Africa was not his best bowling.
The 27-year-old Lancastrian captured a maiden five-wicket haul in his 120th international to put England 2-1 up with only one game remaining on Friday.
But he said: "I think I've bowled better and got less rewards.
"I bowled a few wicket-taking balls and catches went to hand but it was more the pressure we built up as a unit."
Anderson was also full of praise for his seam bowling colleagues as England dismissed the hosts for 119 in Port Elizabeth.
"Tim Bresnan's spell was fantastic from the bottom end and Stuart [Broad] got an early breakthrough as well which was a huge help.
"It was nice to get a wicket that was a little bit conducive to seam bowling - and thankfully I made the most of it."
Skipper Andrew Strauss was delighted for England's man of the match Anderson as his side rallied admirably from a seven-wicket reverse last Friday.
"We had a good chat about what went wrong in Cape Town," said Strauss.
"James Anderson was outstanding, creating pressure and bowling wicket-taking deliveries."
Bresnan (1-15), Broad (2-30) and Paul Collingwood (2-20) provided admirable support.
"It was a brilliant day for the bowling unit as a whole," the captain said.
"We wanted to clarify our plans against their batsmen and I think we got that pretty much spot on.
"The key was to start well and it was a good toss to lose if I'm honest. But I was pleased with how the bowlers reacted to the conditions.
"You have got to adapt quickly and make sure that if there's anything in your favour then you use it. I think we did that."
Anderson, who removed Hashim Amla and JP Duminy in his first six overs before returning for a devastating second spell, said: "We had a chat after the last game because we didn't bowl as well as we could have done.
"We wanted to come here and bowl a lot better, and luckily we got a wicket that helped us with our plans."
South African skipper Graeme Smith, who fell in the second over to Broad, said his team had failed to adjust to the wicket.
"I'm generally very disappointed. We didn't assess the wicket and bled throughout the innings," said Smith.
"Jimmy Anderson came back and bowled a very good second spell, but if we had posted 220 or 240 that would have been a good target to defend.
"We have got a lot of young guys who need to learn how to make key decisions in the course of the innings and they just didn't do it.
"They're not all guys with 80 or 100 matches, it's more like three, four or five. They need to learn to analyse conditions."
The one man he exempted from blame was Alviro Petersen, who hit a third successive half century of the series to finish last man out for 51.
"Nobody else put in the hard yards with the bat," bemoaned Smith.
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