After an impressive team performance against New Zealand, South Africa were given a true lesson today as they were convincingly beaten by a resurgent England team by 39 runs inside 19 overs.

England, led in the batting department by a sublime Kevin Pieterson, got off to a flying start, despite losing Lumb in the very first over. Graeme Smith probably did his only bit of good captaincy today by opening the bowling with Johan Botha. Both England openers were uncomfortable with spin, and it showed. But Smith only gave Botha one over and England never looked back. The English only lost their next wicket in the 12th over when the score was 98. This after Pieterson had smashed a brilliant 53 off 33 balls. He had hit 8 fours and one six in his Man of the Match effort. Ex-South Africa, Craig Kieswetter, also showed his worth with a well played 41 in a partnership of 94 off about 65 balls.

The Proteas' bowling was fairly average today. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel both bowled four overs and both went for over 10 runs an over. Duminy only bowled 1 over, but went for 11. Only Jacques Kallis and Johan Botha provided any real resistance, with the former, surprisingly, only bowling 3 overs. Botha was very impressive again with his 2 wickets going for just 15 runs.

South Africa did quite well is stopping the tsumani of runs, and England only managed 168 in their 20 overs. I say only because at one stage, they were looking comfortable for 200 plus. And, even the positive of scoring 170 just 2 days earlier against New Zealand was not enough as they could only make 129 all out in 19 overs today.

None of the batsmen looked comfortable, apart from perhaps JP Duminy. Smith was the only other player that really got a start, with 19, but he still had to fight hard for his runs and then got out trying to force. I think that was the same issue for most of the batsmen as they all felt pressure to hammer the ball from the get-go. Kallis is normally a perfect example of how this isn't necessary. Kallis and Botha were the only other players to get into double figures.

Duminy was the only South African to provide any form of good attack by hitting 2 fours and 2 sixes in his 39 off 25 balls, but it was too little too late and everyone crumbled around him, and soon he also succumbed to that increasing pressure.

South Africa were never in the game and now I think they need to go back and rethink strategy, and maybe be a little more flexible. There are still problems in the top 3; with Smith not firing, there is added pressure on Kallis to pay a form he isn't used to. Gibbs is still not firing, which provides a bit of a conundrum. I would suggest dropping Gibbs for Roelof vd Merwe, especially since the next game will be a much more spinner friendly track. For the bowlers, I would drop Morne Morkel until he's sorted his no ball problems out and give Rusty Theron his debut. The no ball problem is not huge but in the totals that are being chances, free hits become problematic.

Maybe I'm completely wrong with this, and the Proteas need to just settle into their rhythm, and changing the team again will not allow this to happen. But it does provide certain talking points: Smith is still no where near his best, both with the bat and with the captaincy. And what are we going to do about the bowling? Consistancy is key, and without it, we can not be truly positive.

All I do know is that South Africans don't like losing to the English and we must certainly step up to a higher level against the Pakistanis on Monday and win if we are to progress to the semi-finals.

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Forever Proteas!