The Proteas were downed by nine wickets at The Oval by England on Monday, with the hosts wrapping up the Test series 2-1.
Needing only 33 runs on the final day to claim the victory, England lost Alex Lees - trapped leg before by Kagiso Rabada for 39 on Monday morning.
But with Zak Crawley (69* off 57 balls) going strong and Ollie Pope (11* off 10 balls) at the other end, England made klein skooltjies of South Africa to get the required 130 runs for victory with nine wickets in the bank.
Proteas captain Dean Elgar blames their batsmen for the series defeat, and rightly so.
Their player with the best batting average was also the man who had the best bowling average (13.11) in the series - Marco Jansen.
With a batting average of 27.33, Jansen’s highest score was 48 - the second highest in the team throughout the series, as opener Sarel Erwee’s 73 in the first Test at Lord’s was their only 50.
After losing the second Test at Old Trafford, SA failed again with the bat at The Oval, scoring 118 in the first innings to which England replied with 158. SA then scored 169 in their second innings, with England then ending on 130/1.
To Elgar the defeat was simply because of their batsmen.
He says: “What helped us at Lord’s was a good first innings. We need to be point blank about it - we haven’t executed runs like we had to. We failed in that department. As much as you need 20 wickets in a Test, you need runs.”
The Proteas now pull together to prep for a limited overs series in India at the end of the month.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za