Proteas captain Dane van Niekerk blamed ill-disciplined bowling and batting for her side’s second ODI defeat against England on Tuesday.

It was a difficult day for the Proteas Women. They went down by 69 runs in the second ODI and were outplayed with the ball and bat.

They failed to repeat their fantastic all-round team effort from the first ODI, which saw them claim a seven-wicket victory to go 1-0 up in the series.

It was a complete contrast in the second ODI, as England asked the Proteas to complete a record run chase after posting a target of 332 with four wickets in hand.

They failed to complete the chase and Van Niekerk blamed it on poor execution as the defeat began with poor bowling.

‘First of all, it wasn’t hard luck. It was bad execution as a bowling and a batting unit,’ said Van Niekerk. ‘We spoke as a team and we were all happy to bowl first. You never know what to expect in England. We checked the stats and it was 50/50 so we went with what we were comfortable with. 

‘At the end of the day, if we bowled second and bowled the way we did today, we would have probably fetched leather as well. You always have to look at both aspects and England played really well. They brought the game to us, which we knew would happen.

‘I think we just expected it to happen like it did in the first game,’ she added. ‘That is what was frustrating for me in the field. We never fought for a wicket, we just expected things to happen. On a wicket like that, there was no seam movement, we never summed up the condition well enough and the scorecard reflects that.’

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Other than an outstanding ton from Lizelle Lee and a quick-fire 44 from Chloe Tryon, it was a disappointing chase from the Proteas, which Van Niekerk also highlighted.

‘We were definitely one batter short,’ she continued. ‘The thing is, we bat till eight or nine, so for only two players to score above 40 was disappointing, myself included. I chucked my wicket away as well and we had a lot of soft dismissals.

‘We will go back to the drawing board again. I’m excited to go to Canterbury and check the wicket first so we can sum it up the right way and take [the fight] to them in the last game.’

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The Proteas play England in the series-deciding third ODI on Friday in Canterbury.