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Durban - Proteas captain Faf du Plessis says the Australians cannot use their inexperienced seam attack as an excuse for going 3-0 down in the ongoing ODI series.
The Proteas wrapped up the series with a dramatic four wicket win at Kingsmead on Wednesday night as David Miller (118*) stole the show and the Proteas chased down 371 for victory.
To be fair, the Aussies weren't making any excuses.
Coach Darren Lehmann, speaking after the match, said that they were simply outclassed by a better team and that his youngsters would learn a lot from this.
The Australian media, in particular, has been harsh on the inexperienced seam quartet of Chris Tremain, Daniel Worrall, John Hastings and Joe Mennie.
Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Patrick Cummins are all on the injured list back in Australia while Josh Hazlewood is being rested ahead of the upcoming Test series against the Proteas.
There is no doubt that the Aussies, the No 1 ranked team in the world, would be a different side altogether were those players available.
But Du Plessis does not see it as watering down his side's series achievement at all.
"I think as an international team you cannot use that as an excuse ever, and I'm sure they would say exactly that," Du Plessis said.
"I’ve been part of a South African team not too long ago where we had no Dale Steyn and no Vernon Philander in our Test team.
"You have to find a way as a team to try and compete against the best teams in the world.
"We didn’t in that series against England and it would have been a lot different with the two of them playing. But we can’t use that as an excuse.
"You have to make sure that you as a squad find a way to compete. There’s a little bit of inexperience there but they would be the first guys not to blame their weakened attack."
Lehmann added that he had learnt a lot from South Africa's batsmen during this series and that, once he had all of his "ammo" back, he would be able to implement some plans.
