Down the road, just a few hundred yards from The Wanderers, there is an apartment block called simply Headingley, and for the past 15 months it has served as a reminder to the South Africa cricket team that you take nothing for granted.

All the bad memories of their decisive fifth-Test defeat in England evaporated shortly after 11am yesterday, however, when Alan Mullally edged Shaun Pollock to slip and the first Test match ended five-and-a-half sessions short of its full course.

South Africa had overwhelmed England by an innings and 21 runs, the first time in 116 meetings that South Africa have won by an innings and the third Test on the trot they have achieved it.

To do so they bowled the visitors out in their second innings for 260, although it was a spirited batting performance, led by Mark Butcher's resilience and Alec Stewart's blistering 86 on Saturday. It continued yesterday with the lower order, Andy Flintoff (36) and Andy Caddick adding 52 for the eighth wicket and Caddick and Darren Gough 44 for the ninth, Caddick making 48, his highest Test score.

It was the 10th successive home win for South Africa, which is astounding, and if it was the batting of Daryll Cullinan and Herschelle Gibbs that gave them the leeway for their victory, it was the bowling of Allan Donald and Pollock, currently considered the two best bowlers on the planet, who enforced it.

Donald took no more wickets yesterday, but he ended the second innings with five for 74, four of them in an incisive burst late on Saturday afternoon, and match figures of 11 for 127.

Pollock added two more wickets to a haul that included Mike Atherton first ball on Saturday (Atherton thereby completing his second successive pair overseas), the last one giving him match figures of eight for 80. Only Flintoff, who fell to the left-arm spinner Paul Adams, prevented a clean sweep by this awesome pair. Revenge does not come sweeter nor more complete than this.

South Africa immediately announced a squad for the second Test in Port Elizabeth, unchanged except for the addition of yet another pace bowler in Nante Hayward. Clearly then, there will be no respite for England from the pounding they received in this match. Spin is for politicians, and the optimistic noises being made about Jacques Kallis's knee can only add to English woes.

England, though, have to pick themselves up and they will do so, according to their captain Nasser Hussain, with a mixture of hard work and relaxation. Yesterday afternoon, while thunder rumbled around, they went to the nets and they are sure to do so again today.

They will be working hard on the line and length employed by the bowlers so that batsmen are offered significantly more deliveries at which they must play, and on the technique of the batsmen in letting the ball go.

"I am not saying we would have won had we bowled first," said Hussain, "and it is definitely not an excuse. But it would have been interesting to see how far we have come in being able to exploit those conditions and then bat later on." England began the match batting in bad light and heavy cloud cover: South Africa were able to play the bulk of their innings in sunshine which, when allied to the inability of the England bowlers to exploit the conditions, made batting look easier than it was. Atherton, who stood at first slip, said the ball had never stopped seaming. Gibbs and Cullinan batted superbly, but England were desperately unlucky.

The issue of pitch preparation must be addressed in a broader context than an England-South Africa Test. Hussain, as far as he was allowed, was contemptuous of the pitch preparations and feared for the game as a spectacle.

"The point of Test cricket is to provide a good, even contest between bat and ball," he said, "to bring spin and all forms of technique into the game. Those who watched can decide whether this pitch provided that.

"It was another three-day game, the ball was flying over the keeper's head, shooting along the ground and going sideways. Very interesting, but I do not think it is the sort of cricket the purists want to see." Hussain and the match referee Barry Jarman must submit their pitch report in confidence to the International Cricket Council and are sure to give it a panning. But will it cut any ice, in particular, with the United Cricket Board of South Africa, under whose auspices this pitch was prepared? Dream on.