"The target’s a big one and we’re not really looking at that with too much in mind," Batsman Hashim Amla said. "We’re pretty much looking at it hour by hour, trying to play the game as it comes and obviously reassess how far we go by what happens tomorrow."

He continued: "Without a doubt (there is belief the game can be saved).

"I think, over the last good few months now, we’ve done this before and everyone in the team believes it is possible.

"It will depend a lot on how we start off tomorrow in the first session. I think that will go a long way in determining where we stand in the game."

But Amla is not worried, he said: "Yes, the new ball is due in the morning and it’s also a deteriorating wicket and day five but, as I said, we’ll have to try and dig deep in the first session or two and then take things from there.

"If Jacques and AB can get us through the new ball safely, and if we lose no more than one wicket before lunch, then we will have a good chance of batting out the day."

He said: "There was not a lot of sideways movement, it’s been pretty flat. Every now and then you get the odd one to bounce or keep low.

"Hopefully, with the new ball tomorrow morning, we can get it to swing around a little bit if we take it straight away and then see how it goes. We’ll be looking to certainly get a few quick blows."

He added: "The general spirit hasn’t been too bad. We spent 80 overs in the field and only got a couple of wickets.

"But no, we’ll be ready to go again tomorrow morning and show a bit of a buzz in the first hour and hopefully grab another couple of quick ones there and see how we go for the rest of the day."