Conrad calls South Africa's thrashing by England 'embarrassing'

South Africa's coach Shukri Conrad labelled his team's record 342-run defeat to England in the third ODI "embarrassing" while captain Temba Bavuma said the performance "doesn't do us justice" after their recent ODI success. South Africa have beaten both Australia and England 2-1 in series over the last month.

Their loss in the third match in England, which was a dead rubber, came after a comprehensive win in game one and a nail-biting triumph in game two. That secured a first series in England since 1998. But the magnitude of the defeat in Southampton, which comes after a 276-run loss against Australia - also in a series that was already won - asks questions of how quickly and dramatically South Africa switch off, especially when the result does not matter.

"Any excuse is better than none. We were definitely off today. And against a top side like England, when you're not on top of your game, you do get exposed," Conrad said at the post-match conference. "A similar thing happened in Australia, where after going 2-0 up, it was a complete aberration. They got in excess of 400 as well. But if we were going to be poor at something, we'd rather be poor at games that aren't clutch games. We're not making light of today's defeat. That was slightly embarrassing."

Both defeats - South Africa's two heaviest in ODIs - have come when they have fielded first and were accompanied by lack of discipline and dropped catches. Against Australia, South Africa bowled 15 wides and put down Alex Carey, who went on to finish the innings strongly. Against England, they bowled 19 wides and dropped two catches including Jamie Smith on 23 and Jacob Bethell on 44. Bavuma said at the post-match presentation that bowling that many extras was "far from ideal, not good enough" and said it "could be complacency", while Conrad believed a wayward bowling performance impacted the rest of their skillset.

"The bowling affects the fielding and the other way around, but nine out of ten times, Matthew Breetzke is taking that catch [off Smith, who offered a chance off a leading edge in the covers]," Conraid said. "We're not going to read too much into that, but it's a difficult one because when that edge is not there and something doesn't go your way and the harder you try, it's just not there. I'm not offering it as an excuse because it's not supposed to be like that, but the fielding wasn't at the usual high standard that we set. All in all, yeah, it was an embarrassing performance in the field."

Among South Africa's bowling lows were Nandre Burger's 0 for 95, which was the most expensive in their history, and Codi Yusuf's 0 or 80, the worst by a South African debutant. Some of that may be down to inexperience especially in the absence of pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada, who has not played an ODI in either Australia or England as he recovers from ankle inflammation.

Conrad confirmed Rabada could have been "really pushed and forced through today" but South Africa decided they "didn't want to take any risks with him" ahead of the T20Is next week. "The T20 is the priority for us. When we earned the right to give him another rest, we definitely exercised that because with the T20 World Cup looming, we want to make sure that we get a good take on that. We've obviously got two massive Test series [against Pakistan and India] coming up."

Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, who was rested, and Marco Jansen, who has not played since the World Test Championship final where he broke his thumb, will all be back for the T20Is. A new concern is Bavuma, who could not bat after hurting his calf - but as he is not part of the T20Is, he will be assessed on his return to South Africa. Bavuma's injury was among the reasons South Africa's batting stumbled to their second lowest total in ODIs - 72 - as they went in pursuit of a target of 415 for which Bavuma said there is "no real formula".

In the end, they were blown away by a searing opening spell from Jofrra Archer, who took 3 for 1 in his first three overs and finished with 4 for 18. Archer's first wicket was Aiden Markram, who nicked off against a short, wide ball and sent the rest of the line-up into freefall.

"Aiden lost his wicket to a pretty innocuous delivery, and that probably summed up the day," Conrad said. "And then from there, before you know it, you're four down. Obviously, the disruption of Temba not being able to bat, that played a part as well but it is very difficult to explain. If you're not on top of your game, if the edge is not there, then you're going to get exposed."

Bashful as they were in this match, Bavuma also highlighted South Africa's achievements over the last month after beating both Australia and England with a game to spare. "There are lots of positives in the series, coming to England away with a fairly inexperienced side and we wouldn't want today's performance to diminish that," he said. "There are shining moments so we'll try to highlight those. They can't be wiped away by one performance."