Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – The heartbroken South African cricket team find themselves in a complex, awkward position… and not only because they remain 1-0 down in the Test series against England with only one to play at the Wanderers next week.

It was difficult to find major fault with their performance in the drawn, knife-edge Newlands encounter which they bossed most of the time despite losing a nasty toss in unusually seam-friendly conditions at the outset.

Certainly it was streets better than their meek surrender in Durban, and you get the feeling that various essential elements of their armoury are gelling again.

So it is tempting, as it may well be to the selectors when they pick their Johannesburg squad on Friday, to think that tampering too much with a combination which came within another whisker of victory at Newlands – that whisker being the infernally adhesive England No 11 Graham Onions? – is an ill-advised move.

It must be a hollow feeling to be trailing in a series where you have had the opposition nine wickets down and on the ropes twice in three games and yet, as captain Graeme Smith put it afterwards “just not good enough to land that final punch”.

But the Proteas must endeavour to banish the mental scarring, or at least massive irritation, of their failure to prevail at SuperSport Park or in the New Year Test as quickly as possible and muster anew the belief that they can, indeed, actually knock over this tenacious touring side.

They are moving in the right direction in that regard, and striking back for a 1-1 outcome would certainly not be the end of the world against the Ashes holders and in a landscape in which no nation on the planet boasts truly compelling supremacy at Test level right now.

Does that mean, though, that the status quo, team-wise, should pretty much prevail for the Highveld finale?

I am not quite so sure. They say you don’t tamper with a winning side, but the cold fact is that this line-up is not winning, and sometimes a freshening move or two, and significant strategic rethink as well, can pay dividends.

Maybe the Proteas do need some tweaks for the big Bullring push.

I put it to Smith – admittedly still rather shell-shocked and likely to be more coherent in a day or two – at the post-match news conference that perhaps a different strategy was required for the final Test against an English side highly unlikely to depart from their notably batting-heavy formula as a draw will suffice to give them their second post-isolation series win in this country.

I suggested, simultaneously, that perhaps something not too far off a lottery-like environment - read: slightly more of a “result” pitch - at the Wanderers might be South Africa’s best passport to a levelling triumph.

“Ja, I think the selectors need to look at (issues like that) in the next day or two. I think Wanderers has been a bit of a lottery as it is, in recent Tests we’ve played there.

“It’s been a result wicket, and might be no different for this one. Obviously we need to push for a result.

“Having won in England in 2008 we can hang onto the (Basil D’Oliveira) trophy by levelling the series, so that’s the goal now.”

Smith later made the valid point that having Jacques Kallis back firing more fully as a bowler, and Steyn similarly finding his best form after an injury layoff of his own, had given the bowling more oomph.

“But we need to look at the surface at Wanderers and see what the right combinations are to win for us. If it means playing an extra seamer or whatever, then we’ll have to do it. We need the best chance to win that Test.

“I really can’t complain about the effort the two seamers (Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel) put in with the second new ball here. We asked a lot of questions and Paul (Collingwood) played and missed at about 10 of 18 deliveries at one point.

“And not having Friedel de Wet at full tilt (through injury) in this innings was tough for us as well – Dale and Morne really carried the ship as well as they could.”

A couple of South African players ought to be under scrutiny, most notably Ashwell Prince, in his presently ailing new role as an opening batsman, and left-arm spinner Paul Harris.

Prince continues to earn plaudits from his captain for being part of the Test team’s “inner circle” and possessing the right stuff temperamentally, but he looks nervy and uncomfortable at the top of the order.

He has scored a mere 78 runs in six innings in the series at an average of 13, and there is a case for calling up Alviro Petersen, who has impressed for the ODI side, knows the Wanderers well and would restore a handy left-right combination up front.

Harris, meanwhile, has come off successive Tests in which his effectiveness has been too sporadic, and his series bowling average has swelled to 40.36. Is that enough to earn a Wanderers ticket?

If the Proteas do decide to beef their pace attack, Ryan McLaren is an option as a mostly bowling all-rounder, and out-of-form Wayne Parnell would be a brave choice to provide precious left-arm variety. It might be a gamble worth taking.

South Africa did not do anything glaringly wrong on day five here. The dramatic, violent late shudder they caused in England’s ranks showed that they did not lose their urgency or spirit at any stage of proceedings.

They were having to attempt the mop-up job on a pitch that simply held up better than most you will see at such an advanced stage of a Test match.

Desperately close, but again no cigar for the Proteas, who remain a team under pressure with no win to show yet in a Test match on home soil this summer.

That is a slightly painful bottom line, and one wonders what the fallout will be if they fail to triumph at the Bullring and thus earn a second successive home series defeat…