For once nobody can misrepresent England's cricketers as little better than a national joke. For once nobody can superficially pronounce that Test cricket in England has already entered its death throes. For once, and it is quite a turn-up to be able to declare it, the England cricket team can declare themselves to be winners.

Twelve years since an England win in a major series: that grating statistic had gathered strength all summer. Well, today it is little more than 12 hours ago, and for a team who have finally freed themselves from the inadequacies of the past, most of those will have been spent in a state of considerable intoxication.

But it took 28 minutes yesterday to make a start. South Africa, entering the final day at 185 for eight, were dismissed for 195, leaving England victors by 23 runs. Angus Fraser had Allan Donald caught at the wicket from the merest sliver of an outside edge, and Darren Gough completed his best Test figures, six for 42, by having Makhaya Ntini lbw. Ntini, who had faced only one ball all summer, and that against Ireland, was a perfect number 11 when there was a Test to be won.

There is no magic formula for England's victory in this series. It is the reward for several years' striving by up to a dozen key individuals. But Alec Stewart, whose appointment to the captaincy in the spring was deemed to be a stopgap, will deserve the recognition he receives.

Stewart brushes aside excuses and soft thinking as he brushes dust from his shoes. His conviction that English cricket must toughen up is hardly a unique insight. It is shared by the collection of senior players - Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Fraser and Gough - who have committed themselves so intensively to breaking the mould. What Stewart has done is draw the "bottom line" in a forceful fashion.

To emphasise, however, that England's advancement has been a team effort, one only has to consider the turning point in the series. In the third Test at Old Trafford, South Africa led by 369 runs on first innings and with nearly two days remaining looked certain to go 2-0 up in the series. Then, with World Cup football monopolising attentions, Test cricket seemed almost inconsequential.

The recovery was begun by Atherton and Stewart, captains past and present, both aware that another England crisis loomed. Had either fallen cheaply then, this summer would have ended with the usual bout of recriminations. Instead they remained in a stand of 226, and the following day Robert Croft's unbeaten 37 in three hours scraped a draw.

Croft was left out of the Headingley squad, but he received a mobile phone call from the England dressing-room yesterday only minutes after their victory. "We sang him a little song," said Stewart. "We didn't want to forget him." It was a small but important touch, which spoke volumes for England's present morale.

Consistency will take a little longer. English cricket remains as mercurial as ever - this fluctuating Test was in many ways a microcosm of the ups and downs of the past 12 years - but at least it is learning how to take a punch on the chin and stay on its feet.

If Stewart was assisted by a past captain, Atherton, at Old Trafford, Headingley provided another symbolic moment in the shape of Hussain, who had been the only other serious candidate for the captaincy.

This is an impatient age, weaned on instant entertainment, but England won a Test series because a man toiled for more than seven hours for 94; a batsman, more to the point, who was once dismissed as chancy but who has worked tirelessly for the past five years to prove otherwise.

When Hussain was dismissed on Sunday he trailed from the field, head bowed, and punched the boundary rail in distress not at a lost Test hundred but that he might not have carried the job through. Thanks to the dependability of Fraser and yes, these days, the dependability of Gough, too, he had done enough.

Atherton, England's Man of the Series, had visited hospital before play, because of stomach trouble, and arrived at the ground by taxi, rushing across the football ground to arrive just as the first bottle of champagne was being uncorked.

Later he was repeatedly asked if he was frustrated that England had not won a major series under his captaincy. He invariably looked as if he did not quite grasp the question. A good thing too. Team England, yesterday, did not seem just a glib phrase.