Marco Jansen highlights importance of experience as Proteas close in on victory

Having declared on 425 on Day 3 of the match at St. George’s Park, South Africa made light work of their opponents’ batting order yesterday, bowling them out for a paltry 99 runs, and enforcing a follow-on.

The towering seam bowler took a five-wicket haul in the process, and revealed just how the senior players have helped him and other teammates navigate tough situations in the match.

"Yeah, I think it's definitely Themba's leadership coupled with the group of guys that we have. We have a group of guys ; obviously, if you look across the board, we don't have the most experience when it comes to playing Test matches. Someone like Temba ,  sauce [Aiden Markram] and KG, for example, those three guys play a massive role, especially in the games and obviously at training as well, like giving tips when needed or even just a word of encouragement," said Jansen 

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"Sometimes it's quite easy to be a bit hard on yourself if you're not feeling that rhythm or if you're not feeling good from a batting perspective or a bowling perspective." "I think those three guys especially, and then also Homi, who 's played a lot of red-ball cricket, those four guys, I'll definitely say they play a massive role in terms of not only from a friend perspective or from a player-to-player perspective but also from a group perspective because there are four guys you can lean on."

Before his heroics with the ball Jansen played a sensational innings with the bat, dismissed for 85 after a 132-run partnership with captain Temba Bavuma.

He revealed what has worked for him in order to improve his batting.

Jansen expressed delight in how things have turned in their favour in the match, and spoke of their plans to go for the jugular once they had the Australians under the pump.

They come into the final day of the Test still with a lead of 170, needing six wickets for a massive innings victory.