Dale Steyn was understandably pleased with his performance, while Hashim Amla had kind words for the entire attack.

‘The ball came out swinging and the wicket quickened up a bit overnight,’ explained Steyn. ‘I love playing at this ground and I love taking wickets. After not taking a wicket in the first innings and yesterday getting a bit of cramp late in the day, I said to my mates that the tiger is coming out firing today. I have got to get a couple of wickets.’

Hashim Amla, who had an easy time captaining his first Test on home soil, praised the entire pace attack. He did, however, single out the performances of Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn in each innings.

‘We didn’t expect it to finish so quickly but Dale bowled exceptionally well to get us started and the wicket was quite difficult to bat on… He’s a wonderful bowler and today he showed his class,’ said the skipper.

‘Vernon, the way he started, and throughout the whole game he bowled with extreme skill and precision so credit to him. Morne and Abbo (Kyle Abbott) and finally Dale really came and cleaned up,’ concluded Amla.

The match marked Steyn and AB de Villiers 10-year anniversary in the South Africa test team and they both played their part to celebrate the occasion. Amla payed tribute to the two stalwarts and explained that they deserve all their success.

‘They (Steyn and De Villiers) have been doing this day in, day out for 10 years. Credit has to go to them for their hard work. Not many people see the effort that they put in, in the nets, behind the scenes. They are exceptionally gifted cricketers.’

The celebrations were slightly dampened with the news that Quinton de Kock would be ruled out of the rest of the series with a ligament tear in his ankle.

‘Losing Quinny is never nice. It’s never nice to lose a teammate, someone who is part of your family,’ said Amla.

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