How many days have we had so far in this series in which both sides have come off the field thinking they've played well? How often have days actually been won by players doing WELL rather than by players doing BADLY? At the end of 4 Tests the list of players who have not looked up to playing test level cricket looks huge.

At the very least it reads: Butcher, Key, Dippenaur, Amla, Van Jaarsveld, De Bruyn, Flintoff (batting), Jones (batting AND keeping), Tsolekile (ditto), Hall (batting and bowling), Boje (ditto), Steyn, Anderson, Harmison.

That's almost an entire squad!

Strauss and Kallis apart (and not without reservation: even they've accumulated some shockingly poor dismissals between them), few of the others have had a totally convincing series: althought Ntini's been as consistently convincing as anyone with the ball without really setting the world alight.. and both pollock and Hoggard have had the odd glorious spell between the dross.. only Langveldt will actally be going away from the first 4 matches with his head held high - and the fact that the batting on both sides has failed dismally despite the atrocious nature of the bowling speaks volumes.

Taking an objkective viewpiint.. this series has been far, far less worthy than the equivalent series last year in Sri Lanka: at least out there we had the encouraging signs of Sri Lanka finding depth in their team and becoming more resillient on home soil... and England were able to relish some impressive knocks from Vaughan, Thorpe and Butcher, some fantastic glovework from Read and quite unexpected quality from Giles and Flintoff - the positves here have been far harder to spot.

Both sides should really be reflecting on the fact that they've played badly enough to have been 4-0 down: but for Strauss, England would be.. and but for Kallis, SA would be.. and if either side had been able to bowl out tail enders with no clue how to bat then not even Strauss or Kallis would have made any difference.

The SA should, I guess, be slightly more cheery than the English.. if only because they hit far lower depths in the months leading up to this series - but that's a poor state of affairs given the standing of these two sides in world cricket.

ps. for Ernest: I was delighted to see Hoggard get the ball int he right areas on the final day in the last Test... but are you not taking note of the fact that only two of those seven wickets were actually taken? The rest were gifted by truly appalling batting... of a level that one expects more from Bangladesh or Zibabwe than from a frontline Test nation.

pps. how many wickets have actually been taken by good bowling in theis entire series? 1 in 6? Given the ratings of the players involved... that's quite shocking.