The Proteas slipped to a six-wicket defeat at the Derby county ground in Britain with more than eight overs to spare against the England Lions in their second warm-up match for the one-day international series starting next week.
Admittedly, Graeme Smith’s side had the worst of the batting conditions after losing the toss, but they still looked on target for a decent total after Smith and Herschelle Gibbs put on 67 runs for the first wicket in 16 overs.
But they twice lost two wickets in quick succession to have to rebuild the innings with two new batsmen at the crease.
The second time this happened Mark Boucher and Vernon Philander did a fine job in consolidating the innings with an unbroken partnership of 92 for the fifth wicket. Boucher finished unbeaten on 63 off 67 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Nevertheless, their total of 209 looked a good 30 or 40 runs short of where they needed to be.
This was evident as Matthew Prior and Owais Shah, two members of the England one-day international squad to face the Proteas next week, gave the innings momentum — and then the job was rounded off by Eoin Morgan and Samit Patel.
The Proteas travel to Newcastle on Sunday to prepare for Wednesday’s one-off T20 International against England at Chester-le-Street. — Sapa