Proteas captain Faf du Plessis will not be forced to step down as leader of the national team.
Instead, Du Plessis will retire from international cricket at the end of the T20 World Cup in
October this year.
Rumours have been doing the rounds that the 35-year-old will hang up his boots soon.
But after yet another embarrassing innings and 53 run defeat to England at St George’s Park on Monday, Du Plessis vows to continue fighting despite facing a third straight Test series defeat.
South Africa now trail the tourists 2-1 with the fourth and final Test at Wanderers starting on Thursday.
And Du Plessis says: “I heard the rumours of retirement and I’ve been pretty clear and consistent with the message that the T20 World Cup is the time frame we’re looking at.
“There’s not a lot of Test cricket for the rest of the year, there’s obviously one big Test match for this team that we still need to focus on.
“And for me it’s important as captain of the team that we keep driving forward and applying ourselves to win a Test match.
“After that, it’s two Tests in the West Indies and that’s it for Test cricket.
“From a performance point of view, the team and I are feeling the pressure of not performing to the
standard that we should.
“But we’ll keep trying and keep fighting.”
SA showed some fight on the final day of the Test.
Resuming on 102/6 and still 188 runs behind, the Proteas were never going to save the match.
They then lost Vernon Philander (13) in the first over of the day - caught by Ollie Pope off the bowling of Stuart Broad.
Kagiso Rabada (16) lost his wicket next when he was caught by Broad off the bowling of Mark Wood (3/32).
And when Anrich Nortje was clean bowled by spinner Dom Bess for five, South Africa were on 138/9.
That’s when tailenders Keshav Maharaj (71) and Dane Paterson (39*) joined forces to give the PE crowd an entertaining end to the match.
Maharaj was the chief entertainer, smacking three sixes and 10 fours in his innings.
With Paterson klapping six fours of his own, the pair shared a 99-run partnership for the last wicket before Maharaj was run out with SA’s score on 237.