Lorgat slams South African top order

Graeme Smith has struggled throughout the tour of Australia © Getty Images

The convenor of South Africa's selectors, Haroon Lorgat, has warned the country's top order that their performances in Australia have not been up to scratch. Lorgat's comments follow their 94-run defeat against Sri Lanka, at Brisbane, which came two days after they beat Australia.

The South African batting has not been helped by the withdrawal of Jacques Kallis, who has been replaced by Johan van de Wath, but Lorgat told The Cape Times that this is no excuse and other players should take responsibility.

"van der Wath is a like-for-like replacement for Kallis, although he is obviously not in the same class as a specialist batsman," Lorgat admitted. "But we still have plenty of senior batsmen available and, quite frankly, it is high time that they started pulling their weight.

"Jacques Rudolph played well against Sri Lanka, but it is high time that [Graeme] Smith, [Herschelle] Gibbs and [Ashwell] Prince start making the sort of scores we expect from them.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with the personnel we have in Australia, but there is definitely something missing, and the team must sort themselves out quickly. What happened [at the Gabba] was simply not acceptable."

Smith's form has been a concern throughout the tour. In the Tests, Twenty20 and one-day internationals he has failed to reach fifty in nine innings, with a top score of 39. However, for the head of the national selection panel to be making comments such as this mid-way through a tour is hardly going to inspire confidence among the players.