While England celebrated, South African captain Graeme Smith made a thinly veiled criticism of his country's administrators, who have sacked two coaches, two convenors of selectors and one captain in the past two-and-a-half years.

"We need to stabilise in South African cricket," said Smith. "We have to get on a path and work towards a goal. As a captain you start something and then six months later you have to start again, with a new coach, new convenor and new players. The United Cricket Board have to stabilise the key positions. The more you jump around the worse things become."

Smith vowed that South Africa intended to come back strongly in the five-Test series.

"When we were in England last year we started well and England came back, so we've had it happen to us. We have to regroup quickly. We have to improve on a few areas of our game, especially under pressure."

Andrew Strauss was England's star, taking the man-of-the-match award with innings of 126 and 94 not out. He made 43 of the 52 runs scored by England Tuesday as they took only 36 minutes and 9.4 overs to complete their victory.

"His attitude is spot on," said Vaughan. "He doesn't get too high when he's doing well or too low when he's not performing. His technique is pretty good and mentally he's got the ability to be a star for England for many years to come."

Vaughan said the whole team had shown character in coming back from a defeat by South Africa A in their only warm-up game before the Test.

"We were under pressure coming into this match. A lot of mental resolve was needed."

Vaughan said it was encouraging that England had won despite not performing to their full potential, although he said his players expected South Africa to "hit back hard" in the second Test starting in Durban on December 26.

"We need to be up for that challenge," he added.

He said of the eight-match winning streak: "It wasn't something I was thinking about coming into the match. I just wanted us to put in a good performance. But now that we've done it I know we've created something very special."

England's win beat a record that had stood for 116 years. England won seven Tests between 1884-85 and 1887-88, a record that was equalled between 1928 and 1928-29.

England's record sequence started when they beat New Zealand in all three home Tests earlier this year and followed up by a 4-0 clean sweep at home against the West Indies.