CENTURION (South Africa), Feb 13: South Africa captain Graeme Smith believes his side's 4-1 series win over England has firmly consigned their poor one-day run to the history books.

"The bad run of defeats is definitely behind us now and we played superbly as a team in the series," Smith told reporters after the hosts' three-wicket win in the final game on Sunday.

"We had England in trouble today but then let things slip a bit, but we still won, which is a sign of a good team," Smith told reporters. "There's always a lot of expectation when we play England and it's a pressurised series. But that's how you measure yourself and winning 4-1 is very sweet."

Smith praised interim coach Ray Jennings for playing a central role in the triumph, which came after South Africa had lost 12 times in 13 matches following their defeat by England in the first match in Johannesburg.

"Jet [Jennings] has played an important role in the victory and I think he's starting to enjoy coaching a lot more at the moment now that we're winning," Smith said. "It's a messy process at the moment with a permanent coach still to be appointed, but we're all behind Jet."

Jennings said he was delighted with the mental strength his team had shown. "Mental toughness in our batting was our major fault last year and I was very happy that we showed the mental toughness in this series to chase down big scores," he said. "The side has really dominated in terms of batting, even though Jacques Kallis hasn't played particularly well." - Reuters