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Andrew Strauss' Test began with a duck and did not get much better © Getty Images
England's bowlers took only two South African wickets in the first Test at The Oval, but their captain, Andrew Strauss, backed them to take ten times as many in the final two Tests at Headingley and Lord's to win the series and retain their No 1 Test ranking.
England's place as the top-ranked Test team in the world could not look more precarious after South Africa pulled off victory by an innings and 22 runs in an extended afternoon session to go 1-0 up in the series - a win described by the former captain, Nasser Hussain, as "an annihilation."
England were bowled out a second time for 240 with fast bowler Dale Steyn finishing with 5 for 56 and the leg-spinner Imran Tahir 3 for 63. It was England's first defeat by an innings since they lost to Australia at Headingley in 2009 - and Leeds is next up.
But Strauss said: "We have an outstanding bowling attack. You have to give South Africa credit for how they batted but I still back our bowling attack's ability to take 20 wickets on most Test match surfaces.
England's bowlers went straight from a five-match one-day series against Australia to the Test series, but Strauss refused to accept that as an excuse for a defeat that has brought reverberations around the cricketing world.
"Our preparation was fine," he said. "No excuses. We have to win the next two games. I believe we can do that. I didn't think our bowlers bowled that badly, but we didn't get the ball swinging conventionally or reverse.
"You have to give credit to the South African batsmen. They got in and they went big. South Africa played some outstanding cricket and deserved to get on top of us. The concentration they showed with the bat was outstanding
"There is a lot of frustration but there are lessons to be learned and we will learn them."
Strauss conceded that England, having lost four wickets on the fourth evening, were up against it on the final morning as a large fifth-day crowd packjed into The Oval hoping to witness a great escape./
"The odds were always against us having lost four wickets last night," he said. "The wicket was still pretty flat and we are frustrated that we didn't make it harder for them in those conditions
England now have some difficult decisions ahead of the second Test. Ravi Bopara, whose Test batting place has never been secure, will again come under scrutiny after a double failure at The Oval and there will be calls for Steve Finn to add some aggression to the pace attack.