'Some wickets we lost were soft'

The England coach Duncan Fletcher last night criticised his side after they were dismissed for 139, their lowest first-innings total in four years, in the second Test against South Africa.

"That wicket is not a 130 to 150 score - I think 250 would have been a good score," he said. "We've got enough talent in there to have put together at least one grafting and workmanlike stand which would have brought us up to that score."

Fletcher was annoyed at the manner of some England's dismissals, saying they lacked the patience required on such a slow wicket. "Some of the wickets we lost were soft, but maybe they were looking at the fact we were only going along at two runs an over and they wanted to play positive cricket and move us along," he said. "When that happens sometimes your judgement becomes a little bit clouded. If you look at South Africa they are only going at two runs an over, but we've been used to going at three or three and a half."

The South Africa all-rounder Shaun Pollock, who finished with 4 for 32 on his home ground, said that he and his team-mates were delighted at how they bounced back from defeat in the first Test. "We're happy to have bowled them out for 139," he said. "We'd have probably settled for anything around 200 to 250 so we're really chuffed at that and we just now want to bat as long as possible.

"We assessed where we'd gone wrong, came up with new game plans and I thought the guys stuck to them really well. We bowled with discipline, showed aggression and also showed a bit of flair as well.

"We knew we had to be a lot more professional in Durban and that sort of talk has paid off - we looked much more like a Test bowling unit."