The stand-in skipper rued the lack of basic skills as the Proteas lost the final ODI by two-wickets in Sydney on Sunday.

Another loss resigned South Africa to a 4-1 series defeat. The lopsided score-line pushed Australia to the summit of the ODI rankings, while the Proteas slipped to third. Despite the obvious disappointment, Amla found some positives to take away.

‘We had a couple of chances to take the game away from Australia during the series and we failed to capitalise on those opportunities,’ explained Amla.

‘The series was a lot tighter than the 4-1 score line suggested and I think that our World Cup preparation was in the forefront of our minds.

‘The youngsters did very well, Quinton [De Kock] found some form and Rilee [Rossouw] did very well. Once the World Cup comes along we will certainly be tougher with some of the guys being rested and others coming back from injury.

Looking forward, the focus is understandably on the World Cup in February. This tough tour will have given a lot of the fringe players the time in the middle to acclimatise to the conditions before the global showpiece kicks off.

‘It’s important for some of the guys to get a breather and we are looking forward to the West Indies series but more importantly, we are certainly looking forward to coming back to this fantastic place for the World Cup, we are really looking forward to it,’ concluded Amla.

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