South Africa captain Graeme Smith remained upbeat despite his team losing five wickets for 33 runs to tie the second one-day international against England at Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
"It was obviously disappointing that we didn't close it out when we needed three runs off six balls, but there are lots of positives to come out of the game," Smith told reporters.
"Everything was a lot better than in Johannesburg and we actually took the game away from them before things went awry in the last over. Funny things can happen in the last over, so that's why we aim to finish games before that.
Smith praised England's bowlers, especially Kabir Ali, for their fightback.
"They're also allowed to bowl well and put the ball in the right places and I thought Kabir Ali bowled a superb last three deliveries, especially since the first two in that over had been waist-high full tosses."
Marcus Trescothick, who stood in as captain in the field for England as Michael Vaughan had a stomach bug, played down his role at the death.
"I didn't know what was going on, I was more concerned with chatting with Kabir than the field settings.
"Kabir is our death bowler and he has plenty of experience of that with Worcestershire. He hadn't had the greatest night and it was a crucial over, but he stuck his hand up and to do that in front of 15 000 people with the game in your hands and the rest of the match suddenly irrelevant is pretty impressive," Trescothick said.
The England opener admitted he thought his team was well beaten at times.
"I didn't think we could come back, but it's amazing what pressure does. It's a very, very good feeling to pull that one back from the fire," Trescothick said.
