England won the series when the fifth and final one-dayer against South Africa was called off due to persistent rain at Kingsmead on Friday.

The match was abandoned at 1700 local time (1500 GMT) without a ball being bowled.

It meant England secured the series 2-1, after the first match was also washed out, and became only the second country to win a bilateral one-day series in South Africa.

Australia also achieved series wins there in 1996-97 and 2001-02.

"The win is a big step forward for us and the team looks like it has the potential to work against most teams," England captain Andrew Strauss told a news conference.

"When you achieve wins like this it is a great spur to go forward as a side. There have been some very good one-day sides that have come to South Africa in the last 15 to 20 years and haven't won.

"It shows we are capable of beating good sides and we are now capable of beating them away from home as well," added Strauss.

The opening batsman did, however, sound a note of caution ahead of the first test in Centurion from Dec. 16-20.

"We are not going to get carried away with this victory," said Strauss. "We still have some very important business to take care of on this tour and the preparation for that starts almost immediately.

"It is a different format of the game and different characters are involved so to read too much into the test series from what has happened in the one-dayers would be wrong."

Counterpart Graeme Smith praised England after suffering his first home one-day international series defeat as skipper.

"To lose a home series is massively disappointing. England came here and managed to put a lot of their ideas into play," Smith said.

"England have played well and ultimately have deserved their series victory."