'Gutted' Vaughan lets dust settle

Michael Vaughan ponders England's impending defeat on day four at Edgbaston

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England captain Michael Vaughan refused to make any rash predictions after England lost the third npower Test, and the series, at Edgbaston.

Graeme Smith’s superb unbeaten 154 helped South Africa wrap up a five-wicket win inside four days to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, with one match to play.

But while Vaughan admitted the defeat hit him particularly hard – the tourists chased down a target of 281 despite slipping to 93 for four this afternoon – he insisted the immediate aftermath of defeat is not the place to ponder the future.

"Let the dust settle because emotions always run high after defeats like this,” he said.

"It's the first time I have ever lost back-to-back games and I am more gutted than anyone because midway through the day I expected us to bowl them out for 200 and win quite comfortably.

"We have to sit down and reassess," Vaughan added. "Let the dust settle from today and try to work out where we are.

"We are not playing the level of cricket which I would like. I can't fault any of the efforts from any of the players – they are giving it absolutely everything – but we are just not playing well enough as a unit or as well as we can and that has to be looked at.

"There are a lot of us who have to look at the batting and say we are not performing to the standard we would expect."

Though Vaughan admitted his own form is far from where it should be – he has scored just 40 runs in five innings this series – he is adamant that his leadership has not suffered.

"I have no doubts about my captaincy ability, absolutely none," said Vaughan. "But I am not scoring runs. As a number three batsman I have got to score runs and in this series what have I got?

"I have had some good balls, a little bit of bad luck, but I set myself a lot of high standards and in this series I have not got anywhere near those standards, so I want to look at that and make sure I get back to playing like I can.

Graeme Smith is mobbed after steering South Africa to an historic series win in England

"You have to deliver out in the middle. I am an experienced player and at the minute I am not delivering, so I will have to come up with a formula to give myself the best chance to deliver when the pressure is on.”

The fourth morning saw England, who resumed on 279 for six, reach 363 thanks largely to a seventh-wicket stand of 65 between Paul Collingwood (135) and Ryan Sidebottom (22).

South Africa’s pursuit was undermined by the loss of four wickets before they reached three figures, but Smith wrested the initiative back from England with assistance from AB de Villiers (27) and Mark Boucher (45 not out).

“It was a real bitter blow that because when we had that partnership between Collingwood and Sidebottom to get us up to 280 I put us as favourites to win the game," added Vaughan.

"But it was a very special innings from Graeme Smith. The way he came out and played, and chased down that target, was as good an innings as I have ever seen under that sort of pressure.

“We threw everything at them. We had that flurry of wickets in the afternoon and we just felt we were going to get wickets consistently and blow them away. Even in the last hour I thought we were one wicket away.”

For South Africa, victory secured a first series win on these shores since 1965, a feat which brought great pride to Smith and company.

“Since readmission we have targeted wins in Australia, India and England. We have ticked off one of them and that is something we really wanted to do.”

“I guess we would wish we could be back home to share it with everyone as we know it means so much to people - for us this was bigger than just a cricket game.”

Smith added: "I am thankful we are not going to the Oval at 1-1. They were ahead of the game when we started this morning and it was important for us to wrest the momentum back."