JOHANNESBURG, Jan 17: England captain Michael Vaughan praised the contributions of Marcus Trescothick and Matthew Hoggard as his team pulled off an unlikely 77-run victory over South Africa in the fourth Test on Monday.

"The opinion of a lot of so-called experts last night was that we could not win the Test but I knew we had to bat well and Marcus played a very special innings and Matthew was superb today," said Vaughan.

"That allowed me to set attacking fields that put the batsmen under pressure," Vaughan told reporters after the triumph, which gave England a 2-1 lead with one Test remaining in the series.

South Africa were bowled out for just 247 in the 60th over, Hoggard taking a career-best seven for 61. England had declared 18 minutes before lunch on the final day with a lead of 324, Trescothick blazing his way to 180.

"When you have to bowl the opposition out in basically two sessions, you need your bowlers to get wickets bang-bang and Matthew did exactly that, especially when he got their best player out first ball to a good catch," Vaughan said.

Following his dismissal of Jacques Rudolph, bowled for two, Hoggard had Jacques Kallis caught by Trescothick at first slip with the next delivery. "I didn't really know what we'd get from the bowlers today, but they kept running in and giving their all. That just showed their mental resolve after a hard trip," Vaughan said.

Hoggard, who took five for 144 in the first innings, modestly said "the wicket was doing a bit and I was using the cracks opening up". Captain Graeme Smith, suffered concussion from a blow to the head during fielding practice before the start of the fourth day, said the South Africans had simply not batted well enough.

"There is not enough hardness in the middle-order. We just needed to survive for two sessions, but we didn't bat well enough and we kept giving the bowlers a sniff," the captain said. The fifth and final Test starts on Friday at Centurion. -Reuters