ENGLAND are hoping to pull off the second great escape of their South Africa tour to somehow retain their series lead at Newlands today.

Andrew Strauss’ team closed day four of the third Test on 132 for three, having been set a world-record 466 to win, and appear booked for a defeat which would leave the series level going to the final match in Johannesburg next week.

But Alastair Cook, who shared a century opening stand with Strauss before both fell in a rush of three valuable wickets, is encouraged by England’s recent history of closing out unlikely draws.

To do so, they will need to make seven wickets last six more hours. But that was a trick they pulled off, very narrowly, at the start of the Ashes in Cardiff last year and then again in the first Test of this winter at Centurion last month.

‘‘We’ve got to take a lot of confidence from the situations we’ve been in, at Cardiff – and the first Test here – where we’ve managed to scrape out a draw,’’ said Cook, recalling two instances when England were within one wicket of defeat but just managed to survive.

‘‘We’ve got the fighters to do that, in the right positions – so we hope we can do it one more time.’’ Asked whether there is still a remote prospect in English minds of pulling off a remarkable victory, Cook admitted: ‘‘We’re going to have to be realistic about it and would settle for the draw.

‘‘You can never rule out the win, but the draw is probably what we’ve got to try to achieve.’’ It would have been more feasible had England got to stumps, on a day when Graeme Smith’s 183 allowed South Africa to declare at 447 for seven, with at least one fewer wicket down.

‘‘It was pretty disappointing.

We’re probably one wicket behind where we’d have liked to have been,’’ added Cook.

‘‘Obviously, you’d like to be nought down – but realistically, we’ve just lost a couple more than we’d have liked.’’ Even so, he is optimistic.

‘‘The wicket has held together quite well. The wickets so far have been lost in clumps, and we’ve got to try to avoid that tomorrow,’’ he said.

‘‘Yesterday and today have probably been the best two days to bat on it, and I don’t see a drastic change tomorrow.

‘‘There’s a little bit more rough for (Paul) Harris to the left-handers. But apart from that, there’s just a little bit of variable bounce we hope we can get through and fight like we have done in previous times.’’ South Africa’s AB de Villiers has good reason to be confident of victory - but is taking nothing for granted.

‘‘We are clever enough to know you have to respect the game,’’ he said.

‘‘Three down, we are in a very good position - and we worked very hard to get into the position.

‘‘We’d like to say we will win. But we have a lot of hard work still to do. We are really prepared to put in the hard yards tomorrow and hope it pays off.’’ De Villiers was especially encouraged by the wicket of Kevin Pietersen just before stumps.

‘‘We know he can score big hundreds, and it’s a massive wicket,’’ he agreed.

‘‘Strauss’ and Pietersen’s wickets were very key for us.

It’s important to get the two out, and we managed to do that with good bowling and good pressure.”

Scoreboard

South Africa v England At Cape Town

Overnight: England 273 (M J Prior 76, A N Cook 65; M Morkel 5-75, D WSteyn 4-74).

South Africa 291 (J H Kallis 108, M V Boucher 51; J M Anderson5-63) and 312-2 (G C Smith 162 no, H M Amla 95).

South Africa Second Innings

G C Smith c Collingwood b Onions .....183

J H Kallis c Prior b Anderson .................46

A B de Villiers c Broad b Anderson .......34

J P Duminy c Prior b Anderson .............36

M V Boucher c Bell b Swann .................15

D W Steyn not out ......................... 1

Extras (b8 lb7 nb2 pens 5) ..........22

Total 7 wkts dec (111.2 overs)447

Fall: 1-31 2-261 3-346 4-376 5-401 6-442 7-447

Did Not Bat: M Morkel, P L Harris, F de Wet.

Bowling: Anderson 22.2-1-98-3. Onions 22- 4-87-1. Swann 37-5-127-3. Broad 22-4-79- 0. Pietersen 3-0-6-0. Trott 5-0-30-0.

England Second Innings Close

A J Strauss c Amla b Harris ...................45

A N Cook c Boucher b de Wet ..............55

I J Trott not out ................24

K P Pietersen lbw b Steyn .................... 6

J M Anderson not out ......................... 0

Extras (b1 lb1 pens 0) ................. 2

Total 3 wkts (51 overs)............132

Fall: 1-101 2-107 3-129

To Bat: P D Collingwood, I R Bell, M J Prior, S C J Broad, G P Swann, G Onions.

Bowling: M Morkel 12-3-26-0. Steyn 14-3- 30-1. de Wet 8-4-19-1. Harris 13-2-43-1.

Kallis 4-1-12.