Tag Oval-2012

After England suffered a humiliating loss on their home pitch at the hands of South Africa, their captain Andrew Strauss spoke to the media, vowing to get back to their winning ways.

Day 1 of the first test match of the series at the Oval went very well for the English but they collapsed soon afterward and couldn't manage to get back up. South Africa's batting was just about perfect, with Hashim Amla becoming the first South African to cross the 300 run mark. Kallis' 182 and captain Graeme Smith's century contributed too the visitors' mammoth total of 637. England could have somehow managed a draw, but it wasn't to be as they were cleaned out before even managing to get a lead in the second innings. South Africa won the match by an innings and 12 runs.

Strauss looked disappointed while addressing the media, but said that he was confident in his side's ability to respond with a better performance in the second Test.

"I have a great amount of belief in our players and I am sure we will bounce back next week. I am sure there are lessons for us to learn coming out of this Test match. There have to be and it's important in a three-Test series not to repeat those mistakes in the next game," the captain was quoted saying.

"We were outplayed in the last 4 days of the match, but I still think we will come back into the series. We have often played our best when we have come off a defeat and this is a good challenge for us."

"Most of my regrets are that we did not come out with a draw. We should have done that and losing 4 wickets last night was a body blow for us. I suppose South Africa had a bit of a psychological advantage last night with us having been on the field for a long period of time. We did not react well enough to that and that leave a slightly sour taste in the mouth. But you have to give credit where it is due. South Africa took their chance in this game - they fought hard to stay in the game on day 2; they got ahead of us and didn't let us back. They played really well. Hashim Amla in particular was outstanding and he was supported well by Kallis and Smith," he added.

Strauss also showed a lot of confidence in his bowlers as well and was quoted saying : “I have great belief in our bowling attack. They have shown it (their quality) time and again over the last couple of years and one game doesn’t change that.

“The wicket was at its most placid (when England bowled) - there’s no doubt about it. We couldn’t get the ball swinging either way, so it was always going to be hard work for us, but South Africa never gave us an end to bowl at. When we did take a wicket Kallis came in and got a hundred of his own.”

It's going to be a tough climb out of here, and England know it. They'll have to win the remaining two Test matches to claim a series victory.

“We have two games and we have to win them both to win the series. I have huge confidence in our players to do that,” said Strauss.

“Everyone needs to go away and think about what they did in this Test match and steel themselves as much as possible to come and play some good hard cricket next week.”