Graeme Smith says the Proteas have only themselves to blame for being 2-1 down in the ODI series against England, but he may be forced to curse the weather on Friday for depriving his team of an opportunity to share the series.
The rain has been falling in Durban this week with a consistency that the erratic Proteas have been struggling to achieve, and the forecast again predicts that more rain (15mm) is due later on Friday. Both he and England captain Andrew Strauss understandably played down the weather threat, saying their teams would be fully prepared for action today.
Smith was not in a mood for excuses at his captain's press conference. "We haven't performed to standard for two of our matches, so we've only got ourselves to blame. We knew that rain would be a factor this week, so the match in Port Elizabeth on Sunday was a crucial one. We just never performed well enough, and that's our responsibility."
The Proteas' skipper added that his young, relatively inexperienced team had to learn to live with that and learn from their mistakes.
"We've got lots of young faces around, and they'll have to learn quickly," he said, adding that progress needed to be made on shot selection, how to assess conditions and the ability to "read" matches.
The South African captain was, perhaps understandably, disinclined to praise England, focusing instead on the way his team had made life easier for the tourists.
Strauss described his team as "incredibly motivated" to win the match and the series on Friday. Victory would make England only the second team, after Australia, to beat the Proteas on home soil in an ODI series. He said his team had "progressed quite a long way" since their 6-1 defeat against Australia earlier this year. "Sometimes you need those tough times to see the light and realise where you're at and where you ought to be."
Strauss said that recent improvements in his team had included regular and intense "middle" practices that involved match-like scenarios, a greater attention to important minor detail and more thinking on the style of play that the team wanted to adopt.
"I got the feeling that we had been lagging behind other sides in various respects so it's good that we're making progress. But I would be the last to say we're the finished article, there's a long way to go."
Considering the rain the ground has received this week, the pitch was surprisingly hard, as opposed to the outfield which was still sopping wet at dusk.
The pitch, which looked unusually green even for Kingsmead, is sure to favour the seamers. South Africa, who played with only five specialist batsmen on Sunday, may add Herschelle Gibbs to the mix, but only if they drop Mark Boucher and give the gloves to AB de Villiers.