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Southampton - Captain Faf du Plessis acknowledges that South Africa's performance at the 2019 World Cup has been nowhere near good enough.
There was nothing the Proteas could do about their washed-out match against the West Indies at the Rose Bowl on Monday, but the hard truth is that they now have just a solitary log point to show for their efforts after four tournament fixtures.
It leaves them with an almost insurmountable run at a semi-final place, and they must surely win their remaining five matches to stand any chance.
Even that might not prove to be enough, but speaking to media after Monday's 'no result', Du Plessis acknowledged that the Proteas had nobody but themselves to blame.
"We are in this position because we haven't played our best cricket, so we don't deserve to be anywhere close to the top of the log," the skipper said matter-of-factly.
"It's very clear for us as a team: we need to be at our best and we need to play well in the next five games.
"We need to start playing more consistent, more solid cricket. If we do that and the results start happening one by one then this team will get a lot of confidence from that for the later stages."
Du Plessis says that the side is in a good space mentally despite the results and the off-field issues that have disrupted proceedings in England.
"It's performance. You need individuals within your side to step up and pull the team up.," he said.
"There is nothing else to be cleared out. As a team, the feeling in the camp is still very strong. The guys are still enjoying being on tour and being here. We just haven't put in the performances we need.
"When a team starts losing it can happen that a few cracks start appearing and the blame game can start, but I honestly believe that we have been very far away from that and it's a strong sign for us in terms of our culture."
While sharing the points with the West Indies is far from ideal, Du Plessis says that the more the rain fell at the Rose Bowl, the happier he was with getting something from the game.
Having been asked to bat first, South Africa had slipped to 29/2 from 7.3 overs before rain forced the players off.
With the increasing possibility of the match being shortened to 20 overs per side, the situation began favouring the West Indians more and more.
"I think it's pretty obvious that when you play a team like West Indies you want a play a full game," Du Plessis said.
"It's just the make-up of their side and the nature of chasing in situations like this always favours the team batting second.
"In my mind when I was looking at about 30/35 overs, I was still feeling like if we got a score of around 200 plus there was enough in that wicket with our bowling attack, especially playing Beuran today as an extra seamer.
"The further the game goes, and being two down already, the closer it gets to a T20 game and the odds are in their favour already. As it got a bit later in the day we would rather get the point and go."
The Proteas are next in action on Saturday when they take on Afghanistan in Cardiff.
@LloydBurnard is in England covering the 2019 Cricket World Cup for Sport24 ...
