Boucher stumped by Proteas' batting woes: 'We can't hide away from it'

Proteas coach Mark Boucher was not happy with South Africa's batting effort following their Test series loss against England.

South Africa slumped to a nine-wicket loss against England at The Oval as their poor form with the bat resulted in the host's excellent comeback.

Boucher made headlines shortly after the defeat as he confirmed that he would step down from his role as head coach after next month's T20 World Cup.

But before his big announcement, Boucher addressed reporters at The Oval to express his disappointment as South Africa's battings failed once again to make any substantial innings.

The Proteas' batting inexperience was evident as the tourists were bundled out for 118 and 169 in the third Test, with Marco Jansen's 30 and Dean Elgar's 36 the two top scores for SA.

"I'm disappointed, it was a missed opportunity. We played some good cricket and we never put the runs on the board, so we never knew how we could test England in a way," said Boucher on Monday.

"We believed we had the bowlers to take 20 wickets, but bottom line, you've got to score the runs and we never got them on board. 

"Our guys didn't go out and play maverick cricket, we tried really hard, but they got tested and fell short with their batting technically and some good bowling. We knew England had a good bowling attack, unfortunately, we couldn't stand up to it."

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The Proteas were forced to make changes ahead of the final Test and it saw Elgar and Kagiso Rabada as the only players to have played more than 50 Tests.

Opener Sarel Erwee's 73 at Lord's was the only half-century by an SA batter in the series, with England scoring four half-centuries and two centuries.

Boucher