SOUTH Africa captain Graeme Smith apologised to the Trent Bridge crowd yesterday after his side were rolled over with embarrassing ease by Kevin Pietersen's rampant England.
A resounding ten-wicket win in a match which last only 37.1 overs out of a possible 100 put Pietersen's side 2-0 up in the five-match NatWest Series and left Smith struggling for explanations.
His side completed a historic win in the Test series
but their dismal 83 all out, with tailender Andre Nel top-scoring with 13, was knocked off in under 15 overs by England openers Matt Prior and Ian Bell.
"We can only apologise for a poor performance," Smith said. "People have paid good money to come to the ground and are rightly angry not to get a proper game. But we must give credit to England. We didn't apply ourselves and it starts rolling before you know it. Kevin and his team deserve victory. It's just not good enough on the field at the moment. We're not playing to the standard we know we are capable of.
"England are playing a dominant brand of cricket but for us this is a tough pill to swallow."
A triumphant Pietersen was delighted with his side's achievements but warned against complacency.
"Today was very special but we were a long way from finishing this series – games three, four and five are important.
"We need to get ourselves right and enjoy this evening because wins like this are very, very special.
"I'm not going to stand here and say this is the best team we've had and it's the start of great things, but if we keep training hard I'm sure we won't be too far wide of the mark."
Nottinghamshire seamer Stuart Broad took five for 23 in front on his home crowd to set up the win. Pietersen added: "Obviously I'm delighted. The bowlers put their hands up and to bowl them out for 80-odd was great, as was the way Belly and Matty knocked them off."
The full article contains 350 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
