Strauss left with a bitter taste

The England captain admits his batsmen were not consistent and the team was clinical and also "not good enough" at this stage.

JOHANNESBURG // A drawn series was the least the Proteas deserved after they crushed England in the final Test yesterday to retain the Basil D'Oliveira Trophy, according to South Africa captain Graeme Smith. South Africa won at the Wanderers by an innings and 74 runs to ensure the four-match campaign finished level at 1-1. But England were forced to hold on in the first and the third Test, leaving Smith wondering what might have been.

"We could easily be sitting here 3-1 up, that's the honest truth," he said. "We lacked knock-out blows in Centurion and Cape Town and England showed great resilience in the series. "But it was great to play such convincing cricket at the Wanderers. We really dominated the game and came out deserved winners. "We've played better cricket in at least three of the games but we knew what we needed to do coming into the game and I'm proud of the way our players performed. It could have been easy to run out of puff after giving so much in Cape Town but we've bounced back."

Smith was reprieved by a third umpiring mistake by Daryl Harper on Friday but he felt England's criticism of the referral system contributed towards their heavy defeat. "We felt England spent so much time and energy on the referral system, to see them lose focus on what was important gave us a lot of confidence throughout the game," he added. Andrew Strauss, the England captain, admitted his side are far from the finished article.

"Losing this match leaves a bitter taste in the mouth," he said. "We're not good enough at this stage. We're not clinical enough and we're not consistent enough and that's been a problem for some time. We need to look at why that is." @Email:[e-mail] Morkel mauls sorry England, s2