England forced to take early tea after extending lead over South Africa to 252

Joe Root's side are likely to spend most of Sunday batting towards a declaration and hoping that the weather holds on Monday to bowl South Africa out

Keaton Jennings and new man Tom Westley took the initiative with a punchy second-wicket stand (Getty)

England extended their lead against South Africa to 252 on Saturday afternoon before they were forced off again by rain, prompting an early tea break.

After bowling South Africa out for 175 this morning England had moved onto to 74 for one before they were forced off just before 3pm, with Keaton Jennings and Tom Westley both starting to get on top of the attack. With little prospect of an improvement, tea was taken, and the outlook for more play this afternoon is not good.

England will now have to spend most of Sunday batting towards a declaration and hoping that the weather holds on Monday to bowl South Africa out.

England begun the afternoon session at 20 without loss after overcoming a nervous five overs just before lunch. Keaton Jennings had looked nervous back then, and was dropped by Dean Elgar, but this afternoon he improved and it was in fact his opening partner Alastair Cook who went first.

​Morne Morkel has been brilliant from the Pavilion End all Test and he pinned Cook down, repeatedly beating the bat, before getting him with one that clipped the top of off stump.

That left England 30 for one and to get back into the game, South Africa needed to bowl them out for close to 150. But Jennings and new man Tom Westley took the initiative with a punchy second-wicket stand. Westley, who looked like a Test batsman in his first innings, started with two fours off Vernon Philander. The South African seamer was soon off the field again, having been suffering illness all match.

And when Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris came on to bowl the pressure lifted from England, and from Jennings in particular. He took the attack to Rabada, before surviving a DRS decision that could have been caught behind or leg before but in fact was neither.

When Westley hit two fours off Morris’ first over the England lead reached 250, and when the players went off for rain soon after, their position in the game looked very secure. Only a catastrophic collapse, and brilliant South African batting – or more like, two more days of rain – can deny them a win from here.

And yet South Africa’s position would be even worse were it not for the fight shown by Temba Bavuma and the tail, first on Friday evening then again this morning. They did remarkably well to rescue their position to finish on 175 all out. That gave England a first-innings lead of 178, less bad than it could have been.

After starting with Stuart Broad and Toby Roland-Jones this morning, Root had to make a change to get the breakthrough, as Jimmy Anderson replaced Broad from the Pavilion End and soon enough he had Morkel caught at second slip by Cook with one that nipped away.

That ended an admirable 47 stand and when Roland-Jones came back on he completed his debut five-for, ending the resistance of Bavuma who nicked behind to Jonny Bairstow for 52.