England try to make up lost ground

The first task for Vaughan, surely, is to get his own game back in order.

He says he doesn't feel in bad touch, and making it into double figures without too much difficulty in six innings out of six supports that view.

But Vaughan is still to pass 20 in three Tests. South Africa know if they can keep him down then they will go a long way to stealing the series.

As of today, though England's No4 will be relying on a tried and trusted remedy to put him right.

Vaughan endured a terrible run in one-day cricket last summer, failing to get beyond 14 in the five meetings with New Zealand and West Indies.

Then, as now, he vowed to spend hours working one-on-one with coach Duncan Fletcher. The results were fairly special - two centuries in the Lord's Test against West Indies - so it is no wonder Vaughan has put himself down for a repeat prescription.

There was no doubting Vaughan's disappointment yesterday, not only with England's hefty defeat at Newlands but also because, for the second Test running, the batting unit had flopped horribly in the first innings.

But he kept his feet firmly on the ground while England were going 13 Tests unbeaten last year, and he sees no reason to panic now after one defeat.

"We've played some great cricket over the last 12 months and now we've lost one game," said Vaughan. "I don't think we should jump to too many huge conclusions."

The inescapable fact is that most of the batsmen have been too gung-ho, impatient to stamp their authority on the opposition and paying the penalty.

If care, concentration and only 11 boundaries in an innings of 149 is good enough for Jacques Kallis, then perhaps his example would not have been a bad one for England to follow.

As it is, Kallis finds himself ranked the world's No1 Test batsman today wh i le Vaughan and his top order colleagues are heading back to the drawing board. Or at least to the nets.

The next two or three days in Cape Town were earmarked for rest and recreation. Not now.

" These are not naughty boy nets," stressed Vaughan. "We won't work together as a group until next week in Johannesburg."

England could have played a three or even a one-day game before the Fourth Test. Jimmy Anderson, Paul Collingwood, Chris Read and Gareth Batty would love a match, while Steve Harmison might benefit from another workout. But England are not about to admit now that they made a planning mistake. And Vaughan isn't going to start publicly worrying about Harmison's seven wickets in three Tests.

"There are two games to go and Steve's going to be a huge threat to all their batsmen," Vaughan said.

Results: First Test (Port Elizabeth) - England won by 7 wkts; Second Test (Durban) - drawn; Third Test (Cape Town) - SA won by 196 runs. To Play: Fourth Test (Johannesburg) - 13-17 Jan; Fifth Test (Centurion) - 21-25 Jan.