Now we know just how strong South Africa is

South Africa's success in taking the limited over series against us with two games still remaining has proven what a very good one-day side we are up against.

The South Africans have a very strong bowling line up backed up by solid batting.

They also boast a host of all-rounders in Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and now you can add Nicky Boje to the list.

There is no doubt that in our bowling we have missed Dion Nash and Daniel Vettori, and also a fully fit Geoff Allott.

As well as that my knee injury has hampered my effectiveness with the ball.

We have tried our hardest but have lacked the penetration to put the South Africans under pressure.

We have two games still to go and will be giving it our all in order to walk away with some victories.

Back to this game though, with Shaun Pollock winning this toss he asked us to bat. Flem (Stephen Fleming) had indicated he was going to bat so were doing what we wanted to.

Chris Nevin and Flem went about their work well after we lost Nathan Astle early. They shared a 90-run partnership before Nev fell to Boje. It was good to see him in the runs and I hope it continues.

Twosey (Roger Twose) came in and just continued where he left off. He was hitting the ball as well as I have seen anybody do and Flem put on over 100 to have us sitting pretty at 200 after 40 overs. From here we pushed the total out to 287 and knew we had a very competitive score.

Getting Daryl Cullinan early saw Kallis come in and together with Gary Kirsten they paced the game very well.

Kirsten is so often the backbone in this South African batting side. He is unflappable and has his own style but if you don't get him early he makes life hard.

They put on over 150 and seemed to be cruising until Kallis got out.

We managed to get the run rate significantly up to 7.5 an over, but the South Africans had wickets in hand.

In the end that was the telling factor, as they threw caution to the wind and won with an over to spare.

I'm sure I speak for everybody in our side when I say we could've fielded and bowled better and we all felt we let our batters down after they had taken us to 287.

As much as you say that you also have to acknowledge the performance given by South Africa. The challenge now is to get the victory and if we do we will know we have beaten a very good side.