England showed strength of character, says Smith

South Africa captain Graeme Smith paid tribute to England's batsmen for hanging on to secure a draw in the third cricket Test on Thursday.

"England have shown great strength of character throughout the series and we've had to earn every inch," Smith said after the visitors' final pair of Graeme Swann and Graham Onions survived 17 balls to salvage a draw and keep England 1-0 ahead in the series.

Paul Collingwood (40) and Ian Bell (78) had shared a four-hour partnership to take England to the brink of safety before the batting collapsed.

"You have to give credit to the Collingwood/Bell partnership," Smith said. "They stuck to their game plan well and showed a lot of character."

South Africa are highly motivated to push for victory in the final Test in Johannesburg starting on January 14, to square the series and retain the Basil d'Oliveira Trophy they won in England in 2008, Smith said.

"The Wanderers has had result wickets in recent years and it will probably be no different this time. We need to push for a result because a win would mean we hang on to the trophy."

Morne Morkel bowled the final over at Onions but the number 11 managed to repeat his heroics of the first Test at Centurion and protect his wicket to secure the draw.

"I just told Morne to commit 100 percent to what he was going to bowl and to give his best," Smith said. "He's probably carrying the whole world on his shoulders right now but I thought it was a good final over.

"It was a case of just not being able to land the knockout blow, which is hugely frustrating."

England captain Andrew Strauss also praised Collingwood and Bell, who came together half-an-hour before lunch and survived a ferocious spell of new-ball bowling from Dale Steyn after the break.

"I thought Paul and Ian were unbelievable, it was a first-rate stand," Strauss said.

"Paul used his experience of having done it before, it stood him in good stead, and I think Ian has wanted to play an innings like that for England for a long time. He was fully in control of his game and his emotions. I think it's as significant an innings as any of his centuries, especially in his own mind, and the way he did it was exceptional."

The England captain admitted he had not dared to believe that Onions could repeat his performance from Centurion.

"When you've been in that situation before, the story does not usually stay the same. But Graham did a great job and the batsmen should apologise to him for putting him in that situation."

Onions said: "I would rather not have been in that position but the most important thing is that we got the draw.

"It was much worse waiting to go in to bat than actually batting. You have to give a lot of credit to the South African bowlers, they kept running in and coming at us through a lot of overs."