Cook endured a baptism of fire as England captain in Centurion

England stand-in captain Alastair Cook defended the batting order and his decision-making in the field after South Africa's crushing Twenty20 win.

A world-record 170-run opening stand from Graeme Smith (88) and Loots Bosman (94) helped the Proteas to 241 as they squared the series at Centurion.

Stand-in skipper Cook admitted he took the "conservative option" in using spinner Adil Rashid for just one over.

And he doubted if changing the batting order would have affected the result.

To add to their misery, England will also be fined by the International Cricket Council for a slow over rate, with the players losing 10% of their match fees and Cook, as captain, fined double that amount.

An ICC statement read: "Alastair Cook's side was ruled to be one over short of its target at the end of the match when time allowances were taken into consideration."

England opened with Cook alongside Joe Denly for the second match in succession - holding back Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Jonathan Trott and the returning Kevin Pietersen.

"We got 200 the other day playing with that order, so we decided to stick with it," said Cook "Unfortunately the big hits, we didn't hit them as cleanly as they did.

"In hindsight we could have maybe changed it, but whether it would have changed the result I don't know because 240 is a lot of runs."

England edged a one-run win under the Duckworth/Lewis in the first Twenty20 match in Johannesburg on Friday, and South Africa coach Mickey Arthur was surprised the tourists did not change their game plan for game two.

"I must say I was very surprised they didn't do that (change the order)," said Arthur.

We talk about us perhaps being a little but unpredictable, I thought England were very predictable today South Africa coach Mickey Arthur

"I thought they would certainly have used Eoin Morgan and Jonathan Trott at the top of the order with KP batting three.

"We talk about us perhaps being a little but unpredictable, I thought England were very predictable today."

England were blown away at Centurion by some powerful hitting from South Africa's openers.

Cook, deputising for the injured Paul Collingwood, said: "They took the game away from us from the fourth over and put us behind the eight ball. It's always tough when you go round the park, but it was great hitting."

The stand-in skipper said he had asked his bowlers to concentrate on sending down yorkers on a flat wicket, but their execution was found wanting.

"Everyone was busting their gut to try and bowl to the plan but you have to give credit to the way South Africa played," said Cook.

"You can set a field but if you don't put the ball in the right place the margin on that wicket was very small."

Smith described the decision to take Rashid out of the attack after just one over - in which he conceded 25 runs - as "criminal".

"I did (think of bringing Rashid back) a couple of times," Cook admitted. "My instinct was there to bowl him, but I did change my mind.

"I bowled Joe Denly and Kevin Pietersen, which probably might have been the conservative option for me. But obviously Joe got the wicket with his first ball."

Cook admitted a "lot of ideas were thrown around" early in the Bosman-Smith assault by senior players such as Kevin Pietersen and James Anderson.

But he added: "The final decisions came down to me. It was a great honour to captain England, but obviously I'm very disappointed we couldn't wrap up the series."

Pietersen was forced to bring forward his scheduled return to the side by two days because of Collingwood's back problem.

"He's made some great progress over the last few days after coming over here," Cook said of the star right-hander.

"Ideally he probably would have had another match and more match practice, but he's 100% fully fit."

Smith, who ignored severe stomach cramps to give England some pain of his own, said: "We were positive. Loots and I got a rhythm and a beautiful wicket and we just wanted to keep England on the back foot.

606: DEBATE To be fair, Luke Wright bowled pretty well. He got the yorkers in and apart from his first over his RPO was just over seven. jbd349

"The ball does sail up here in the high veldt, we wanted to bat first and post a good total but I don't think we could have expected 241. But I was very happy with the way we went today."

Arthur was especially pleased with the win after the one-run Duckworth/Lewis loss in the first game on Friday.

"We were obviously very frustrated the other night," he said. "We were really keen to make amends today and it's really satisfying.

"I think the emphatic way in which we won, I guess we've come out of the weekend far better than England have."

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