South Africa seamer Dale Steyn has called on his teammates to forget stylish cricket and to beat England in any way they can to move into first place in the ICC Test rankings.

Steyn believes that the Proteas must "get the job done" and battle to victory, even if that means forgetting about long centuries and bowling records.

"It doesn't need to be pretty, it doesn't need to be beautiful with guys scoring hundreds and guys taking five-fors. We just want to get the job done," CricInfo quotes Steyn as saying.

"We don't care how the series goes, as long as we win," he added, before praising the South African bowling attack.

"We've got experience and the guys know how to bowl in different conditions."

Steyn is the top ranked bowler in Test cricket.