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Johannesburg - Proteas captain AB de Villiers says he is "not going to panic" after the side's disappointing performance in the first ODI series match against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Saturday.
"I still believe that the series is wide open, I know how dangerous my team can be if we play well and do the basics well.
"I'm disappointed with the way we played, but I truly believe that we are going to bounce back in the next game," he said.
The second ODI series match is on Tuesday. South Africa had a 180-run thrashing in the first match, the bowlers giving away 137 runs in the last 11 overs. Kumar Sangakkara took full advantage, posting his highest ODI score of 169.
Morne Morkel marked his return from injury with a solid performance of two for 34 in 10 overs, and was the highlight of a bowling performance which lacked accurate execution at the death.
In response, the run chase was off to the worst possible start, with the wicket of Colin Ingram off the first ball of the innings.
The absence of Hashim Amla may have weakened the top order, however De Villiers said greater responsibility was needed from the batsmen.
"We lost wickets early on, which was a problem," he said.
"We had too many big shots going for boundaries instead of working the ball around. We never had a pace and a pattern of play with the bat in hand which was a big problem. There were no partnerships and we kept losing wickets at the wrong time."
The average first innings score at the ground is 226, but De Villiers backed his decision to bowl first in conditions that were favourable for batting.
"I still think it was the right decision," he said of the toss.
"We didn't bowl and bat as well as we could. I think if we had wickets in the end and batted out 50 overs, it would have been a close game."
