SA added 125 runs in 24 overs to their second innings overnight score of 72/4 but lost three wickets on a busy morning session of day three of the Boxing Day Test against England at a cloudy SuperSport Park in Centurion.

When lunch was called, the Proteas were sitting pretty on 197/7 and leading England by 300 runs with Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander unbeaten on 30 and 5 respectively.

The highlight of the session was the crucial partnership of 91 between Rassie van der Dussen and night watchman Anrich Nortje who repaired the damage after SA lost four wickets in quick succession on Friday afternoon.

For England, their star performer was fast bowler Jofra Archer who accounted for Van der Dussen and Nortje in quick succession to start a South African mini collapse.

Van der Dussen, who registered his maiden half century (51) and Nortje, who was floored twice by successive beamers on day two, were outdone by the persistence of Jofra Archer.

Van der Dussen and Nortje started the day on 17 and 4 respectively and they added to their scores as they frustrated James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Sam Curran, Archer and Ben Stokes.

The other wicket to fall for SA was that of Dwaine Pretorius (7) when he was caught substitute Zak Crawley from the bowling of Stokes.

In the second session, De Kock and Philander will be looking to continue piling more runs to help SA tighten their grip on this match.

On Friday, after SA bowled out England for 181, the Proteas lost Aiden Markram (2), Zubayr Hamza (4), Dean Elgar (22) and skipper Faf du Plessis (20) in quick succession.