Captain Joe Root and imperious England turn the screw on beleaguered hosts South Africa

England's captain Joe Root salutes the crowd after reaching his half century.

England established complete dominance over a worn and wearied South Africa in Johannesburg, leaving themselves two days to convert their 465-run lead in the fourth Test into a memorable series win.

Captain Joe Root had the rare opportunity to enforce the follow-on for the second match in a row after the hosts were dismissed 217 behind on 183 but opted to hand his seamers a well-earned rest and pile up scoreboard pressure at the Wanderers.

He led the way personally, top-scoring with 58 as his side made 248 all out at a rate of more than four-an-over in their second innings to lay the groundwork for a huge victory at South Africa’s ‘Bullring’.

That would seal a 3-1 success following the celebrations in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and, with six full sessions to go on a ground where the record chase stands at 310, any other result seems inconceivable.

Mark Wood will again be expected to play a big part with the ball, having returned figures of 5-46 in the morning session.

South Africa had ended day two already in turmoil, 312 adrift on 88-6, a position that only got worse when when they lost another batsman to the fifth ball of the day.

Chris Woakes was the bowler, drawing a leading edge from Vernon Philander who was at the start of a deeply disappointing day.

Playing the final Test of a distinguished career, he would later be fined 15 per cent of his last match fee for using abusive language in his day two send-off of Jos Buttler and then managed only nine wicketless balls in the second innings before limping off with a hamstring strain.

South Africa were in danger of folding embarrassingly, only for Quinton De Kock and Dwaine Pretorius to add some long-awaited steel with a partnership of 79.

De Kock turned his existing 32 into a fourth half-century of the series and Pretorius took advantage of some attacking fields to drive his way to a new personal best of 37.

It took Ben Stokes to break things up, Pretorius feeding a rising delivery to Zak Crawley at gully, before Wood wrapped things up.

De Kock had 76 when he was beaten on the drive, Wood flicking off the bails after finding some deviation off the pitch to compliment his outright pace.