JOHANNESBURG, Sept 10: Captain Graeme Smith bemoaned his team’s inability to finish off their opposition when the South African squad arrived home from their lengthy tour of England on Wednesday.

South Africa were beaten by England in the final of the one-day triangular tournament in July and could only share the test series 2-2, after twice being ahead, following a final Test defeat at the Oval on Monday.

“We have to learn to be more ruthless,” 22-year-old Smith told reporters at Johannesburg International Airport. “We should have scored 600-650 in our first innings but we let England back into the game.

“We’re a bit soft in that area — we need to be more ruthless.”

Smith’s concerns were backed up by coach Eric Simons. “Our team’s psychologist helped us with a lot of things and he pointed out to us during the final test that we had gone a bit soft and it was something we needed to work hard on,” he said.

“The team do seem to do well when there’s no tomorrow. They don’t seem to be able to keep momentum going which is a concern.

“We need to work on playing well when we’re playing well and building on what we’ve done rather than coming back from positions like 21 for four (in fourth test which they won at Headingley).

“I’m very proud of this team but not satisfied. I said to them (after the Oval fifth Test defeat) that if they were proud of that then they shouldn’t be.

“We should not be satisfied with that and we want to look to see how much better we can get from here.”

The South African squad have five days off before they gather again to prepare for the tour to Pakistan.

Several squad members are known to have serious security concerns about travelling to Pakistan and the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) is to send a delegation to the country later this month to assess safety before a final decision is made.

South Africa’s foreign affairs ministry has advised the UCB to avoid sending Smith’s team to Karachi, Peshawar and towns near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Karachi is to host a tour match, a one-day international and a Test match, while a Test is to be played in Peshawar.—Reuters