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After weeks of inactivity, followed by Twenty20 hit-and-giggles, South Africa's top-order have struggled to make an impression on a new-look Australian attack.
Graeme Smith once again went early, Jacques Kallis fell to a flatfooted drive, as did Amla, while JP Duminy also fell to a hesitant stroke.
"We're just not stringing together partnerships with the bat. The last couple of games, we've had no big partnerships and that's put a lot of pressure on the middle and lower-order. That's the big thing we need to work on before the next game," Amla said after South Africa were blown away by 93 runs in the first one-day international at SuperSport Park.
Amla admitted that the bowlers also needed to work on their games, although he added "they are finding their feet too".
Chief among those is Dale Steyn, while Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Morne Morkel both had solid outings at SuperSport Park, Ricky Ponting pointing out afterwards how difficult it was to get on the front foot against the two lanky pacemen.
"They got the ball to bounce a bit more, they swung a few and used the conditions well, so it was satisfying to get through and not lose early wickets to them," Ponting said.
South Africa will be counting on their top-order to do a similar job when the ODI series resumes in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
