Vaughan - Pressure is on

Skipper has no doubts about captaincy ability

Last updated: 3rd August 2008

Michael Vaughan August 2

Vaughan: another defeat

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.

Michael Vaughan
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England captain Michael Vaughan admits he is under pressure to score runs after the series defeat by South Africa.

A five-wicket win at Edgbaston put the South Africans into an unassailable 2-0 lead and Vaughan has now overseen three series defeats against top-class opposition since returning from a career-threatening knee injury.

And he admitted his lack of productivity with the bat - just 40 runs in five innings against the Proteas - had to be addressed swiftly.

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

Bad luck

"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.

"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.

"Let the dust settle because emotions always run high after defeats like this. "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."

It is not only Vaughan's position within the batting unit that will have to be chewed over ahead of the final match of the series at the Brit Oval, which begins next Thursday.

Dust settle

"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."

England were on top when the South Africans - chasing 281 - were reduced to 99 for four in the afternoon session.

But captain Graeme Smith's magnificent unbeaten 154 sealed a fighting win and first series success here since 1965.

England had looked to be in a strong position to level the series after Paul Collingwood (135) and Ryan Sidebottom shared a 65-run partnership in the morning.

Bitter blow

"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 he last hour I thought we were one wicket away."