To lose a home series is massively disappointing but I honestly still have reason to feel quite excited about the challenges that lie ahead for this one-day team and our potential to once again become the number ranked team in the world.

     It is easy to be ‘rational’ about the first Standard Bank Pro result at the Wanderers. There was nothing we could do about the rain, we were very well placed to push for victory and we were extremely confident. So we shouldn’t be too upset because we can’t control the weather and there is still an awful lot of cricket to be played this summer.

We have faced greater adversity than this before so, although we’re very disappointed, we know we can still get things back on track with victories over New Zealand and England in our last two group games.

We were very tentative with the ball, especially the first 20 overs. We didn’t do the basics well and, despite preparing as well as we possibly could, the lack of hard match practice in the last three months showed quite clearly. It’s no excuse – we did as much as we could to be match-ready but there’s no substitute for the real thing.

Nobody can be more disappointed than the players with the semi final result. You run out of words to express the feeling of anti-climax and I can picture all too well how the scenes in may households and bars back home after we failed to get ‘over the line’ and reach the final.

We tried our hardest, we were relaxed and well prepared and we did as many of the things we have been doing throughout the tournament as we were able to.

I’m sure the guys are already sick and tired of me using the word ‘intensity’ at every team meeting we’ve had since the pre tournament camp in Durban, throughout the warm-up week and every day since our first match.

T20 cricket is a sprint, there is no time to ‘ease’ yourself into the contest. So I was understandably thrilled with the speed and intensity with which we started the match against England at Trent Bridge on Thursday.