England are Am-mered: Hashim Amla's knock of 150 decides second ODI

South Africa's 80-run win sees them add the one-day crown to the T20 and Test No.1 rankings they have already ripped off the hosts this summer

First it was T20s, then it was Tests, now England have been overtaken by South Africa as the best one day cricket team in the world.

An 80-run defeat was enough to leave South Africa as top dogs in all three formats and England to wonder where their one day mojo has gone.

Don’t let the tenth wicket fireworks from Samit Patel and Steve Finn fool you, they merely delayed the inevitable.

And on the day that their exiled batsman Kevin Pietersen racked up 163 runs for Surrey, England’s 207 all out was brought into sharp focus.

Over the course of this five match Natwest series, with three left to play, the lead could change hands several times, but on yesterday’s evidence it is hard to see how England will do it.

Just as it was in the Test series, South Africa outplayed them in every department and in Hashim Amla had a man-of-the-match who’s 150 was worth the entrance fee alone.

If England were to get somewhere close to their target of 288 they needed someone to make as telling a contribution as Amla, but with the top four back in the hutch before 20 overs had been bowled their chances were slim.

There was no point wishing KP was around, it was about backing Eoin Morgan and Patel to rescue the innings from 90-4 and then 118-5 to take the team towards an unlikely win. They failed.

When Morgan pulled JP Duminy to deep-midwicket for 27 the game was up and Tim Bresnan’s first ball duck underlined the point.

Amla can rightly be called the best batsman in the world right now and yesterday he produced his personal best to put England’s bowlers to the sword.

Yet his highest one day score seemed to creep up on the scoreboard as if by magic. One minute he had nought, the next 50 and the next 100.By the time he was out for exactly 150 the innings was in the 50th over and his job was done.

He had also reached 3,000 one day runs in the fewest innings of all time, 57 to Sir Viv Richards’ 69.

It was serene one day perfection and coming off just 124 balls it was the complete opposite of his Test match triple ton at the Oval.

If England are to win this series they need to find a way of getting past both him and Graeme Smith who made a functional 52.

They didn’t take the wickets up front to check South Africa’s progress and each partnership was worth at least 32 which means they didn’t take the wickets very often in the middle either.

That is a formula which will keep them on the back foot. England did miss a couple of chances behind the stumps when Amla had made 42 and again on 92, with the first a straightforward chance off Patel.

Skipper Alastair Cook said: “It is frustrating, but you don’t suddenly throw everything out of the window and reinvent the wheel after one bad display.”