South Africa star AB de Villiers believes his side must learn to embrace pain if they’re any chance of surviving Mitchell Johnson’s fiery best.

Johnson finished with figures of 7-68 on day three of the first Test, his best Test haul outside Australia, and was particularly frightening in a four-over opening spell that netted three wickets.

The left-armer then removed openers Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen in his first spell on Saturday, as the Proteas slumped to 3-for-65 at lunch in search of a draw at Centurion.

De Villiers top-scored for his side in their first dig with 91 and was 4 not out at the meal break on day four, having been one of few to handle Johnson’s 150km/r pace with ease.

The 29-year-old suggested mastering Johnson had as much to do with mental toughness as it did batting technique.

“That’s what it’s all about. You can’t show weakness. I try and keep it simple, but other than that you’ve got to be prepared to get hurt,” de Villiers said on Friday.

“Once you don’t have that fear of getting hurt, then I feel you play a lot better.

“Most of the time you get yourself out, he doesn’t really bowl you a peach of a delivery.

“He came hard at all of us. I tried to move quite early, and just trusted my instinct.

“You’ve just got to fight it through.”

South Africa face an immense fight to salvage a draw and avoid going one down in the three-Test series, but de Villiers was not giving up hope.

“There are a few cracks (in the pitch), but the funny thing is that when it misbehaves those are not the deliveries that give you wickets,” he said.

“We’re certainly not going to give up. It’s quite obvious that we’re in deep trouble and there’s only one team playing this Test match at the moment.

“But giving up just doesn’t exist in the team culture that we’ve created over the last few years.”