Dropped catches cost England

Hoping to bounce back strongly from Friday's defeat against Australia, they instead slumped to a 19-run defeat after being restricted to 135 for seven chasing the hosts' competitive score of 154 for eight.

Abie Morkel mastermineded 43 off 20 balls before taking the wickets of Matt Prior (32) and Owais Shah (36) in a match-winning display to leave England reeling.

Earlier, Stuart Broad struck twice, including a wicket with his first delivery of the match to remove opener JP Duminy and captain Graeme Smith after a threatening 19 off 13 balls, while Andrew Flintoff showed no signs of the ankle problem which plagued him against Australia by dismissing AB de Villiers.

Just as England looked set to enforce their advantage, however, a series of errors undermined their efforts with Justin Kemp and Mark Boucher both escaping during a spirited 49-run stand spanning eight overs.

Boucher was dropped twice in an over and went on to hit 29 off as many balls and Kemp was missed on 16 and hit 21 off 27 to set the platform for Morkel's late assault, which included four sixes.

Needing a solid start in testing conditions if they were to stand a chance of eclipsing South Africa's total, England instead slipped immediately into trouble.

Luke Wright, promoted to opener after Darren Maddy was dropped, continued his miserable tournament with a fourth-ball duck to take his tally for the competition to 11 balls faced and only three runs.

Perhaps the key dismissal, however, was the loss of Kevin Pietersen in the fifth over when he was run out attempting a quick run off Shaun Pollock after hooking him to square leg.

Setting off at a leisurely pace, Pietersen was caught out by Makhaya Ntini's throw and despite a desperate dive - colliding with Pollock in the process - he was short of his ground.