Flower power is key to England’s resilience

Strauss and Flower have inspired such commitment within the ranks that when the team are in trouble, the players take responsibility.

Paul Collingwood's mental fortitude is becoming legendary, but he is not the only one. Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar survived 69 deliveries to rescue a draw from the first Ashes Test in Cardiff last July.

Ian Bell came of age as a Test batsman with his game-saving 78 yesterday, while Graham Onions, whose first-class batting average is only 12.42, was the architect of both England's final-over escapes in Centurion and Cape Town. The quiet, measured approach of Flower has proved crucial to England's rebirth as a serious Test force, and the former Zimbabwe batsman said today: "We showed a lot of fight to save two Tests here and we won in Durban.

"Fight is something we like to have in our dressing room. It's integral to what we want. But every England side inherently has fight because the players are representing their country.

"We want to go on to bigger, better things. We are hardened to taking on the best sides in the world.

"Bunny's (Onions) been in some difficult situations and he's come through it. He's had very little luck with his bowling but he's proved he can bat when it matters. That's testament to him and the thousands of balls he's had thrown down at him by Phil Neale and our coaching staff. Battling our way to two draws and refusing to lose has to be great for English cricket."

Flower's smart moves include his use of a 'batting buddy' system, where a specialist batsman is asked to improve the average of a bowler.

Both Panesar and Onions paid tribute to the help they received from Collingwood and Jonathan Trott respectively, while Jimmy Anderson gives credit to Alastair Cook for the strides he has made.

Bowling coach Ottis Gibson has been around since the Duncan Fletcher era but remains popular, while the addition of Graham Gooch, Flower's former Essex club-mate and England's leading Test run-scorer, is another astute step.

Gooch has done much for the careers of his Essex proteges, Cook and Ravi Bopara, and from the evidence yesterday, he has also got inside the mind of Bell. Cruelly dubbed 'The Shermanator' by Shane Warne, after the geeky character in American Pie, Bell was never regarded as a man England could rely on in a crisis.

But Bell's 78, from 213 deliveries and lasting four hours and 46 minutes, means he will now prepare for the decisive Test knowing that his shoulders are broad enough to support even the most high-pressure situations.

Comparisons have been made between this team and Michael Vaughan's 2005 Ashes winners, but this team bear a much closer resemblance to the side Nasser Hussain led during the early part of the last decade.

The teams of Strauss and Hussain lacked the explosive match-winning attributes of Vaughan's, but they were incredibly difficult to defeat. Hussain's side won consecutive series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the winter of 2000-01, which was as impressive as anything England managed under Vaughan.

Retaining the Ashes next winter will, of course, be an altogether tougher challenge. At home, Australia possess the killer instinct that South Africa often lack, meaning 10th-wicket rescue acts will be more difficult to manage.

And on surfaces which offer little to seam bowlers, England pace trio Anderson, Onions and Stuart Broad do not have the helmet-clanging menace to trouble the best batsmen, as Graeme Smith showed with his second-innings 183 at Newlands.

Making the final step, then, will be the most serious challenge Strauss and Flower have faced, but the way they have laid the foundations provides plenty of cause for optimism.