South Africa have three days to change their world

Few people are imbued with as much inner light as Shaun Pollock, and he duly outshone the sun itself at Centurion on Wednesday. As the golden orb descended in the red and orange sky to the west after the fourth day's play in the first Test, he sat in the front row of the pressbox to hand down a few minutes of enlightenment to a media outlet in India. He wrapped up with a genial, "OK, we'll talk tomorrow after South Africa win. Good luck!"

Ten minutes after lunch on Thursday, with the sun still high in the sky, the jolly folly of Pollock's giddy goodbye was confirmed. South Africa, lumped with a target of 305 and reduced to 94/4 going into the last day,