Atherton blames batsmen

reports from Port Elizabeth South Africa 218-9 England 154 (South Africa win by 64 runs)

South Africa may have won this one-day series by a huge margin, but the two biggest cheers at St George's Park yesterday had absolutely nothing to do with cricket. The first came at noon when the brass band arrived after spending the morning playing in the nearby church. But, if their fetching ''one-day" strip of canary yellow stood out in the crowd, it was rendered drab in comparison to the crisp flannels and stripy blazer Nelson Mandela wore as he stepped out on to the balcony to a rapturous welcome from the capacity crowd.

It was not difficult for spectators to be distracted as England lost their sixth game of the seven-match series. With one eye no doubt already on the flight home this game was always likely to end tamely. Apparently the United Cricket Board wanted nine of these matches, the eventual compromise of seven only reached after lengthy arguments with the TCCB after the England players had wanted five.

It is difficult to think what good, if any, has come from England's insipid performances over the last fortnight. Graham Thorpe begun well with the bat until Paul Adams made a dramatic return and although Dominic Cork and Darren Gough have both had their moments with the ball - the latter taking 14 wickets in the series - there was precious little consistency to be found anywhere else.

A tired and dejected Michael Atherton laid the blame squarely with the batsmen. ''We batted poorly as a unit all winter," he said. ''It's difficult to get out of a rut when you're playing almost every day and we were not playing with a lot of confidence by the end.'' A fact summed up by a banner seen at yesterday's prize-giving ceremony that read: ''Lost! One Jack Russell and 10 toy Poms".

Whereas England have gone backwards since losing a game they should have won at Cape Town, South Africa have burgeoned and their six victories plus all the men of the matches, etc, have netted them the best part of a million rand (pounds 200,000).

They may not have experimented quite as wildly as England, but they have been forced to ring the changes and five players have made their international debuts in the last 11 days.

It was Hansie Cronje's fifth successful toss after Atherton flipped the coin, and although this was a better pitch than the previous game's it still required the batsmen to work hard for their runs and those that were bold enough to put bat to ball prospered.

For South Africa, Adrian Kuiper, who was drafted in to replace the injured Jonty Rhodes, bludgeoned his way to an unbeaten 61, taking 11 from Cork's final over of the innings. He is something of a one-day hero out here, but at 36 he is thought too old for a birth in South Africa's World Cup squad. Certainly his big hitting is legendary, though he never really got going after pulling a hamstring early on in his innings and his five fours from 67 balls was way below his usual boundary count.

England bowled well, despite a couple of blemishes in the field, the worst being Robin Smith's dropped catch at short fine leg after Cronje skied an attempted slog off Richard Illingworth. Curiously, Smith, who wears sunglasses, looked up and blamed the sun for the spill.

Much has been made here of a remark Atherton made in a piece he wrote recently for the Sunday Telegraph. In it he talked of South Africa's attritional cricket, saying ''there seems little room for flair within the Afrikaner mentality." A comment presumably directed at Cronje who, now that he is playing his shots, looks a far better player than the one we saw in the Test matches. There, his suspect technique was never quite good enough for the accumulative style of batting he imposed upon himself, and yesterday's 60 was full of hearty thumps over the top.

Apart from Gough, who took 4 for 33, the most respect England received was when 25 rottweillers were marched into the ground to dissuade over- zealous spectators from invading the pitch after South Africa had made 218. It was not a massive target but England still needed someone to get in and make a score if they were to win on this uneven surface. However, only Graeme Hick threatened anything remotely worthwhile after Brian McMillan had removed Robin Smith and Neil Fairbrother in successive balls. When he was out attempting to cut off-spinner Pat Symcox's quicker ball, England's hope for at least a crumb from the table vanished.

Port Elizabeth scoreboard

(South Africa won toss)

SOUTH AFRICA

A C Hudson c Thorpe b White 44

(114 min, 77 balls, 4 fours)

S J Palframan c Russell b Martin 10

(25 min, 16 balls, 2 fours)

G Kirsten c Russell b Gough 17

(34 min, 29 balls, 2 fours)

*W J Cronje c Hick b Martin 60

(98 min, 74 balls, 4 fours)

A P Kuiper not out 61

(99 min, 66 balls, 5 fours)

J H Kallis run out (Thorpe-Russell) 2

(8 min, 9 balls)

B M McMillan b White 4

(19 min, 13 balls)

S M Pollock c Thorpe b Gough 0

(4 min, 3 balls)

P L Symcox b Gough 7

(11 min, 10 balls, 1 four)

P S de Villiers b Gough 0

(1 min, 1 ball)

P R Adams not out 0

(6 min, 2 balls)

Extras (b1, lb7, w5) 13

Total (for 9, 214 min, 50 overs) 218

Fall: 1-30 (Palframan), 2-61 (Kirsten), 3-123 (Hudson), 4-167 (Cronje), 5-172 (Kallis), 6-195 (McMillan), 7-196 (Pollock), 8-206 (Symcox), 9-206 (De Villiers).

Bowling: Cork 10-0-53-0 (nb1, w2) (3-0-12-0, 3-0-16-0, 2-0-9-0, 2-0-16- 0); Martin 9-0-47-2 (w2) (4-0-24-1, 5-0-23-1); Gough 10-0-33-4 (6-0-19- 1, 2-0-8-0, 2-0-6-3); Illingworth 10-1-31-0; Hick 4-0-19-0 (one spell each); White 7-0-27-2 (4-0-14-1, 3-0-13-1).

Progress: 50: 49 min, 70 balls. 100: 100 min, 146 balls. 150: 143 min, 229 balls. 200: 200 min, 287 balls.

Cronje 50: 71 min, 62 balls, 3 fours.

Kuiper 50: 87 min, 61 balls, 3 fours.

ENGLAND

*M A Atherton c McMillan b Pollock 3

(11 min, 7 balls)

C White c sub (A A Donald) b De Villiers 20

(41 min, 34 balls, 1 six)

R A Smith c Palframan b McMillan 21

(68 min, 44 balls, 1 four)

G A Hick b Symcox 43

(86 min, 64 balls, 2 fours)

N H Fairbrother b McMillan 0

(1 min, 1 ball)

G P Thorpe b Adams 21

(55 min, 53 balls, 1 four)

R C Russell c McMillan b Symcox 3

(21 min, 16 balls)

D G Cork lbw b De Villiers 21

(36 min, 37 balls, 1 four)

P J Martin c Symcox b De Villiers 6

(17 min, 9 balls)

D Gough b De Villiers 4

(14 min, 8 balls)

R K Illingworth not out 2

(7 min, 6 balls)

Extras (b1, lb5, w2, nb2) 10

Total (183 min, 46.1 overs) 154

Fall: 1-5 (Atherton), 2-35 (White), 3-70 (Smith), 4-70 (Fairbrother), 5-113 (Hick), 6-118 (Thorpe), 7-124 (Russell), 8-147 (Martin), 9-151 (Cork).

Bowling: De Villiers 9.1-1-32-4 (6-1-19-1, 3.1-0-13-3); Pollock 6-1-17- 1; Cronje 4-0-17-0; McMillan 8-0-29-2 (nb2); Symcox 10-0-31-2 (w1); Adams 9-1-22-1 (w1) (one spell each).

Progress: 50: 65 min, 97 balls. 100: 114 min, 171 balls. 150: 172 min, 265 balls.

Umpires: C J Mitchley and R E Koertzen.

Man of the match: A P Kuiper.

Man of the series: S M Pollock.

South Africa won by 64 runs.