South Africa v Sri Lanka ODIs: Five reasons why South Africa failed

3) A lack of a settled opening combination

Four changes were made in the first four one-dayers. Alviro Petersen, Quinton de Kock, Colin Ingram, Robin Peterson and Amla were all played as openers within the space of five one-day games.

Apart from Hashim Amla, none of the others could even accumulate a half century to their name. The South Africans have to take a hard look at this aspect of their game as without a quality opening partnership, they are not going to be able to put up big scores on the sub-continent.

In countries like Sri Lanka, where pitches are bound to slow down, its important to score as many runs as possible at the top of the order.