CRICKET/South Africa v England, third Test: It was like it had been in the good old days. England yesterday sank to a level of mediocrity the like of which we had not seen since the end of the last millennium when unofficial sources had them ranked as the worst in the world. Australia, currently taking the mickey out of Wobbly Bob and his Pakistanis, will be quaking: hang on to your hats, here comes another duff Ashes series.

Michael Vaughan and his team, far from being pretenders to the imperial crown, are being ritually humiliated at Newlands, hung out to have their bones bleached by a relentless Cape sun showing no sign of making way for the bad weather that might offer them an escape route.

Survival now in the third Test can be their only thought and that, given what seems to be the current state of mind, is a long shot. There are still two days to go - 180 overs - and already South Africa, 184 for three having correctly declined to enforce the follow-on, have the sort of lead, 462, that historically puts an England win out of the equation and makes a draw unlikely.

By the close last night Jacques Kallis, continuing a rich vein of home form that is Bradmanesque in its relentlessness, had helped himself to 60 and Boeta Dippenaar 44.

The chances are that Graeme Smith will demand the best part of another session from his batsmen and with it a further 100 or so runs, leaving England with more than five sessions to bat. Michael Atherton famously managed that at the Wanderers nine years ago to see England to safety after Hansie Cronje had delayed his declaration too long. But unless the opener Andrew Strauss, who has top-scored in each of England's five innings in this series, can do so again or Graham Thorpe digs in, it is hard to see who has the mental fortitude or discipline of stroke to match Atherton's feat.

To place things in perspective, if Durban's timeless Test of 1938-39 is removed from the equation and with it the 654 for five England made in the final innings, no side in Test history has made more than 451 to win, lose or draw in the final innings.

For all the pre-tour bluster and hyperbole, England have been an accident waiting to happen in this series. Beaten in their only warm-up match (a wake-up call apparently, although they may have pressed the snooze button and nodded off again) they played poor cricket generally in the first Test in Port Elizabeth only to be trumped by even poorer play from the home side. The seven-wicket win flattered them.

In Durban the following week they managed to turn a first-innings deficit of 193 into a strong enough lead to win the game had bad light not intervened.

Here they held things together on the first day by attritional tactics, but subsequently have been dreadful. From 95 for four overnight in reply to South Africa's 441 they lost their remaining wickets for 68, 31 of those from Ashley Giles, before lunch (the last seven for 68 overall in fact) and four of those were to the debutant bowler Charl Langeveldt.

At 30 Langeveldt is no spring chicken but England felt his threat in Potchefstroom last month when he took seven wickets against them for South Africa A, including five for 48 in the first innings, and deserved more. Yesterday he bustled in, bowled at a lively pace, swung the ball around a little both ways - a dying art - and finished with five for 46, including a burst of four for 15 in 25 deliveries.

If this was a memorable debut in itself then it is all the more worthy considering that he had his left hand fractured by Andrew Flintoff while batting on Monday and required strapping and a pain-killing injection to play.

Guardian Service

OVERNIGHT: South Africa 441 (J H Kallis 149, N Boje 76, G C Smith 74; A Flintoff 4-79). England 95-4.

ENGLAND First Innings

G P Thorpe c Rudolph b Langeveldt 12

M J Hoggard c Smith b Ntini 1

A Flintoff c Gibbs b Ntini 12

G O Jones c Smith b Langeveldt 13

A F Giles not out 31

S P Jones b Langeveldt 0

S J Harmison c Smith b Langeveldt 0

Extras b4 lb6 pens 0 10

Total (58 overs) 163

Fall: 1-52 2-55 3-70 4-95 5-97 6-109 7-128 8-141 9-149.

Bowling: Pollock 17 5 36 1 Ntini 19 6 50 4 Langeveldt 16 4 46 5 Boje 4 1 15 0 Kallis 2 1 6 0.

SOUTH AFRICA Second Innings Close

G C Smith lbw b Hoggard 2

H H Gibbs c G O Jones b Flintoff 24

J A Rudolph c Key b S P Jones 23

J H Kallis not out 60

H H Dippenaar not out 44

Extras b6 lb12 w8 nb5 pens 0 31

Total 3 wkts (59 overs) 184

Fall: 1-2 2-62 3-101

To Bat: H M Amla, A B de Villiers, S M Pollock, N Boje, M Ntini, C K Langeveldt.

Bowling: Hoggard 10 0 46 1 Harmison 14 2 40 0 Flintoff 14 1 26 1 Giles 13 2 41 0 S P Jones 8 3 13 1