Elgar on 1st Test fielding failures: We weren't good enough and must be better

Proteas skipper Dean Elgar said they can't afford the fielding malfunctions that saw them lose the first Test against New Zealand by a wide margin.

In the innings and 276-run evisceration, South Africa dropped seven chances, two of them off centurion Henry Nicholls.

Dropped catches cost matches and if the same happens in the second Test that starts at the Hagley Oval on Friday, they will cost the series.

Elgar was very firm on how their fielding, often seen as a mirror into a team's mental state, inexplicably went to pieces and how it needs to get better for them to become a world-beating side.

"It's not good enough. The guys know that and as we're playing at a level that's the toughest we can play at, the bottom line is that we're not good enough," Elgar said.

"If we want to compete, win and become a world-leading side, we can't leave such things to chance and they must be taken when they come.

"When you play a good side like New Zealand, their batters will make you pay and I think the same applies with us.

"Our coaches in their capacities have had chats with individuals, but we knew it wasn't good enough."

A common theme that developed from the mess of the first Test was the low energy levels the Proteas experienced in the first Test.

This was evident in the bowling while the batting simply didn't rock up across both innings. Elgar said the managed isolation and quarantine in the build-up to the first Test didn't fatigue him, but the events of the first Test did.

"I felt OK. In being a batter, my workload is less as compared to a bowler or all-rounder," Elgar said.

"However, there are a lot of aspects I need to deal with that take one's mind into different places that make you forget about how you feel personally.

"You have to