Will Faf be the latest to fall foul of the match referee? TEST MATCH TALKING POINTS

SAM MORSHEAD looks back on day four in Johannesburg as England completed a 191-run victory over South Africa to take the series 3-1

• Scorecard

Code of misconduct

Andy Pycroft better have been keeping track of his overtime these past three weeks.

The ICC match referee has been at the epicentre of this series since Cape Town, presiding over cases involving Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander.

And he could be about to make yet another ruling after a feisty passage of play on day four at the Wanderers, involving Faf du Plessis, Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad.

Du Plessis became involved in a heated exchanged of words with the two England players during during the second session on Monday, and walked into Buttler before pointing his finger in Broad’s face.

Whether or not Du Plessis’s coming together with Buttler constitutes a breach of the players’ code of conduct remains to be seen.

It could be that Pycroft and the standing umpires deem the Proteas’ skipper’s actions to violate article 2.12 of the regulations, which relate to “inappropriate physical contact with a player”.

Depending on the gravity of the offence, this could result in the allocation of one or more demerit points and a fine all the way up to a ban.

Given Pycroft has been fairly ruthless in his punishment of other players in this series - especially with regards to Rabada, who was hauled up for celebrating vociferously after picking up the wicket of Joe Root in Port Elizabeth - it would not be surprising to see Du Plessis become the latest man to receive an official rap.

It is expected that this Joburg Test will be Du Plessis’s final home match as captain of his country, while there have been some suggestions that he could end his career in the format this year, and a suspension is hardly the ideal leaving present to his team.

That said, Du Plessis and Buttler’s shoulders made only gentle contact - Buttler could be seen laughing during the exchange - and it appeared as though the South African was reacting to comments made by the England fielders.

In a sensible world, it might be best for all parties to let things lie. But there is a matter of precedent to bear in mind here, and that will inevitably lead to repercussions.

^{Ben Stokes celebrates the wicket of Faf du Plessis}

Close to the rails

It felt as though England came mighty close to losing their way on Monday afternoon.

With Du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen well set at the crease, runs coming relatively freely and the old Kookaburra ball doing absolutely nothing off the surface, South Africa - for the first time in the match - began to look comfortable.

Stuart Broad was visibly irritated in the field, Joe Root had resorted to Joe Denly’s featherweight leggies and the bolts holding the tourists’ wheels in place could be seen to be coming out of their grooves.

It was just as well, then, that England have in their arsenal a man capable of changing matches on demand.

Ben Stokes might not have been particularly influential with the bat here but with the ball in hand he has taken crucial wickets at the most opportune of moments.

Whenever Root has flung up the bat signal, his ginger-haired assassin has provided.

Firstly, Stokes found accelerated lift to Elgar, hurrying the opener into an ugly attempted hook that was successful only in flopping up a return catch.

Then, two hours later, he rolled his fingers down the back of the ball and enticed a little uneven bounce to sneak under Du Plessis’s bat. 

Two vital moments, at times when England needed them most.

Stokes might be hot-headed and not an acceptable version of a role model to many, but there is so much about his approach to his craft which demands admiration. No one in this English side lifts their teammates like the allrounder, and no one can command momentum quite like him, either.

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Keep Wood in cotton wool

Had Mark Wood got to the end of his 10th over without striking blood, many might have started to question whether England had pushed their livewire seamer too hard at the end of gruelling back-to-back Tests.

Wood was wicketless for the innings but still throwing his body into every ball, routinely topping 90mph and all the while risking a side injury which was giving him grief even before the start of play on day one at the Wanderers.

Captain Root must be careful with Wood. Like Archer, he is a fearsome option when used sparingly. But, again like Archer, he is not as malleable as Root and England might like. He can break, and quite easily - that six per cent of his first-class wickets have come in the past fortnight show quite clearly how difficult it has proven for Wood to stay fit for significant periods of time.

As it turned out here, Root was right to stick with the Durham quick, and between them they worked out a plan which led Rassie van der Dussen to drive to a cleverly-placed short extra cover two shy of a century.

Later, the skipper brought a refreshed Wood back to run through the lower order.

He is a mighty fine bowler, but England must look after him properly.

^{Vernon Philander has retired from Test cricket}

A sad goodbye

Vernon Philander’s international career did not get the final chapter it deserved.

Philander received a standing ovation from the sparse crowd as he strode to the crease on Monday evening for the 94th and final time in Test cricket, his wife and young child watching on from the stands.

But he did so with a torn hamstring, in the knowledge that he was only delaying a second home series defeat in a row - the first time South Africa have experienced such a fate in 70 years.

His innings did not last long, Mark Wood caught his outside edge to give Jos Buttler a simple catch, and he was left to face a walk back to the pavilion to a chorus of English voices belting out victory songs from the stands.

Philander has been an excellent servant to South African cricket, but he leaves the scene with his country at its lowest ebb since readmission. And the worry for the Proteas is they may only get worse without him.

And one last thing...

With Rassie van der Dussen falling marginally short of a century on day four, this Test did not feature a single centurion.

That in itself is not all that unusual, but for a game with more than 1,000 runs it was quite a quirk.

Still, there was some way to go to beat the record for runs in a Test match without a single ton - the 1,201 between these two very countries in Durban in 1927-28.

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