South Africa head coach Mark Boucher isn't yet giving up on his team's chances of victory in the second Test at Cape Town despite having fallen well behind England; the visitors stretched their second innings lead over the hosts to 264 runs until stumps on Day 3 with still six wickets left in the shed. 

However, Boucher reckons the home side shall take confidence from previous great fourth-innings run-chases in the nation's history, like the one in Perth more than a decade back when the Proteas chased down over 400 runs against the mighty Aussies. 

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"There's a Test match up for grabs. There are times that the characters have to come out. We understand our batters are under pressure. If we can bowl them out and look at a total worth chasing, we must do that, but good teams also manage to block out draws," ESPNcricinfo quoted Boucher as saying.

"Depending on how well we bowl tomorrow and if we get quick wickets then hopefully we can go for a chase, otherwise we are going to have to fight and bat out a day or a day-and-a-half."

But the surface is playing better than it did in the early part of the game and England bats deep, it could well take the game long way away from Boucher's team. "Let's be honest, our backs are up against it," he accepted. "If we come out tomorrow, new ball in hand, and we use it well, we believe we can pick up quick wickets but it's still going to be a tall ask."

334, by Australia in 2002, is the highest successful run-chase at Cape Town and so the history is also against South Africa. "You have to break it down (the chase), and there's a lot of strategic planning that needs to go into it," Boucher said. "If we look at the way they played Keshav [Maharaj], we might have to be a little bit more positive against [Dom] Bess (England spinner) if we are going for the total."

"You don't chase down totals like that without partnerships, big partnerships. If one or two guys get into a position where they can bat long and get big hundreds then we can get ourselves into a position where we can think of chasing the target."

"There's still a lot of work to be done. We've still got to bowl them out. If conditions allow us to go for the chase, I'm sure there's a lot of guys in the change room who would love to do that," he added. 

(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)