Anderson was hit by successive short deliveries by the South Africa paceman but, with company from England opener Alastair Cook (46no), made a career-best 34 out of 130 for four.

England lost Anderson and more importantly Kevin Pietersen, however, before lunch on day four of the second Test and therefore remained highly likely to go 1-0 down in this four-match series - having conceded a 319-run first-innings lead.

Pietersen made just 13, and his exit left England at lunch needing another 189 runs to make the tourists bat again with a shortage of frontline batsmen remaining.

The only near miss for England in the first hour-and-a-half of a sunny morning, on a sound pitch, had come when Anderson pushed a single to cover off the last ball of a Makhaya Ntini over and would have been run out on four by a direct hit from Steyn.

Instead, the ball missed the stumps and sped away for four overthrows.

After being hit twice, it was not a surprise when Steyn pinned Anderson lbw on the crease with a full-length delivery.

New batsman Pietersen was clearly reading from a different script to one of crease occupation as his cameo 13 lasted just five balls, containing three fours, and was all over when he pushed forward and edged behind a ball of testing line and length from Jacques Kallis.