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Cape Town - Former Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis questioned South Africa's performance in the ongoing Cricket World Cup after the side slumped to their third successive defeat.
The Proteas suffered a six wicket defeat to India and went 0 to 3 at the 50-over tournament in England.
READ: Former Proteas blame SA cricket system for team's World Cup woes
Kallis admitted that although it wasn't a surprise to lose against India, every single player needs to take responsibility for their poor performance thus far.
"South Africa have made this spectacularly hard on themselves - they've six league matches left and every one of them is effectively a knockout game now," Kallis wrote in an ICC column.
"They can have absolutely no complaints with the result against India, they were totally outclassed in every department, with the bat, ball and in the field. They really didn't win much after the toss I'm afraid.
"That dressing room will be a tough place to be, but they have to all take responsibility and work hard to correct the errors they are making," he said.
"I don't think it's any surprise we lost to England and India, they are the two best teams in the world right now. The really worrying thing is that defeat by Bangladesh."
The Proteas' hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals from the 10-team round-robin pool phase are already hanging by a thread.
Kallis insists that the blame does not lie solely on Faf du Plessis' shoulders and that every player should have a honest conversation with each other.
"Before they talk about the team, they need to think hard about themselves. It's a collective effort, from senior players to the new guys. And they have to be positive, they need to feed off each other's energy more than ever," said Kallis.
"This is a big moment for Faf du Plessis but not everything can be put on the captain's shoulders. Each individual needs to look in the mirror, there cannot be any finger pointing, they have to have an honest conversation with each other about what they can do better.
"... I'd tell them it can also go the other way, beat the West Indies and Afghanistan in their next two games and suddenly the table won't look so bad and they'll have some momentum back for what could be a huge game against New Zealand.
"They've got the West Indies next and they proved against Pakistan how talented they are," said the former Proteas batsman.
"It's a tough game but we know how to beat them. You have to get on top of them early and strangle the game, you can't be letting them play with that freedom."
Kallis suggests that the Proteas should take their mind off cricket for a while before their next match against the West Indies.
"Right now the best thing the South Africa players can do is take a couple of days off and de-stress, three games in six games will be as mentally exhausting as it is physically," he said.
"They can play golf, go to the movies, read a book, whatever works for them. They just need to take their minds off cricket because it's a long tournament and you need that time. Then it's back to work because they can't afford one more mistake."
The Proteas take on West Indies at the Rose Bowl on Monday at 11:30 SA time.
South Africa's 2019 Cricket World Cup squad:
Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Beuran Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Rassie van der Dussen
