Jimmy Anderson praises Keaton Jennings for keeping calm under pressure as his Test place hangs in the balance

With Keaton Jennings unbeaten on 34 overnight, batting to save his Test place, Jimmy Anderson praised the young opener for not being visibly burdened by the pressure he is under.

Jennings now has his best score of the South Africa series so far, a strong recovery after scoring just three runs in his three innings before this one, and has the chance on Sunday to help bat England towards a strong position to declare from. It represents a potential turnaround and Anderson said that the way he held off Morne Morkel on a drizzly Saturday could “kick-start” a Test career that has not yet got going.

Anderson also praised how Jennings has not been too down-hearted by his struggles, which could help him to recover from them.

“To be honest he’s been pretty good,” said Anderson of his body language. “Sometimes you do see it in people, when they go through a bad trot, you can physically see them struggling in and around group. But he’s been really good, he’s dealt with it very well.”

The hope in the England camp is that Jennings’ second innings knock here could help secure his place. “Seeing how he got through that tricky period tonight, that might be what he needs to kick-start a good trot, a good run of form,” Anderson said. “Morkel bowled brilliantly in his first spell, so for those two to get through that was a really good effort.”

Debutant Toby Roland-Jones completed his five-for on Saturday morning and Anderson was full of praise for the Middlesex seamer who has looked every inch a Test bowler already. “I’ve been very impressed,” Anderson said.

“It’s not often you see a debutant settle as quickly as he did. He looked very comfortable and very confident. He’s had a good career with Middlesex, and he knows his action, knows his game very well and that’s helped him. Just to see him settle as he did was brilliant, and he thoroughly deserved his five wickets.”

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With Tom Westley and Dawid Malan also making their debuts, there is a new feel to this England team and Anderson said they made a positive change to the group dynamic. “They’ve settled in really well,” he said.

“They’ve all got different things to bring to the group, and it’s been good for us as well, it’s nice to have some fresh faces around and some guys who are really eager to impress. The mood’s been really good in the dressing room, really enjoyed having these guys around, and to see them go out and do well on the field has helped.”

Anderson expects England to accelerate on Sunday before a declaration at tea, giving them four sessions to bowl South Africa out and go 2-1 up in the series.

“I think that we would be thinking that bowling them out, we might need a day and a session,” Anderson said. “If we can bat until tea tomorrow I think that would probably be the ideal scenario. We’ve got nine wickets left so we can push the run-rate on as the day goes on hopefully.”

The England team took the tube from their hotel to the Oval today, due to events on London’s roads. Anderson said that he had taken the tube before but joked that his bowling partner Stuart Broad had not.