England deserved series win admits Smith

South Africa captain Graeme Smith felt England were good value for their one-day series victory after the final match in Durban was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

The pattern of the past week repeated itself today at Kingsmead, where drizzle began sweeping across a playing area under full cover from around noon local time - two and a half hours before the scheduled start.

Heavier rain set in as usual by mid to late afternoon, preventing any play and resulting in an eventual abandonment at 1700 local time (1500 GMT).

Smith told Sky Sports: "England deserved the series victory, they outperformed us in the majority of the games.

"They deserve credit for the way they have played cricket and if we can learn lessons from this it can be an important stepping stone for us looking ahead to the next 12 months.

"We've had some good discussions and learned a few styles of play and found some areas to work on. Our next one-day series is in India where we have got the World Cup in a year or so's time, and hopefully by then we will have a pretty good squad and be a squad that develops from this series."

Smith and co will now hope for revenge when the Test section of the series gets under way in Centurion on December 16.

"There's a fair break now. The last two years have been a great period for us in Test cricket and we want to carry that on," Smith added.

"England have performed well in South Africa so far and have an Ashes-winning squad."