South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said his team beat Australia by playing “good old Test cricket” as the hosts levelled the three-match series with a win by an innings and 31 runs at St George’s Park on Thursday.

Bavuma was named man-of-the-match for his career-best innings of 179. It provided the foundation for a victory which seemed improbable with the first two days ruined by rain and his team in deep trouble on the third morning after being sent in.

“I think it’s just basically to try and stay in the moment,” Bavuma said of the way South Africa kept their focus in a match which had major changes of fortune.

“When we were batting, it was all about how we can extend it, how we can go another hour. Another hour becomes a session; how we can make sure we keep them on their feet because we know how that does have an effect.

“And then once the opportunity is there (when bowling), we’ve been calling on ourselves to be a lot more ruthless. We play good old Test cricket, try and wear the opposition down and then take them down when the opportunity presents itself.”

Bavuma said he didn’t want to get too excited about the win with the final Test starting in five days.

“There’s still a job at hand with another match still to go,” he said.

South Africa were 110-6 on the third morning of the second Test before Bavuma had match-changing partnerships with Marco Jansen (85) and Simon Harmer (82) to enable South Africa to declare on 425-9.

Australia collapsed to 99 all out in their first innings, with tall left-armer Jansen taking 5-33, but provided stern resistance in the follow-on innings before being bowled out for 295.

Rain prevented any play before lunch on Thursday, and more rain was threatening when Jansen claimed the final wicket after the final drinks break.

Australian captain Pat Cummins said the fight shown by Travis Head, who scored 121, and Scott Boland, who was sent in as a nightwatchman on the fourth evening and batted until after tea on Thursday, was a “blueprint” for the third Test.

“Scotty and Trav played their roles well, but it was a long way to come back from. Last week (in winning the first Test in Durban) everyone contributed but today, across the board, not enough of us contributed.

“You’ve got class bowlers in the opposition. You might need to weather the odd storm, but when you do get through it, there are some runs out there.

“It’s almost a reverse of last week. One side gets ahead and suffocates the other side with a few early wickets.”

Cummins said it was a series between the two top Test teams in the world.

“The series is at one-all; it’s similar to where we would have thought it was going to be.”