England captain Andrew Strauss refused to blame the controversial decision review system for his side's defeat in the fourth Test against South Africa.

"We have frustrations with the review system, but I wouldn't use it as an excuse because we were outplayed," he said after the innings and 74-run loss.

"Ultimately we haven't batted well enough on this tour and not enough of our batsman has good series.

"But I'm proud to have won the one-day series and halved the Tests."

Third umpire Daryl Harper opted against giving South Africa captain Graeme Smith caught behind despite the stump microphone indicating contact between bat and ball.

606: DEBATE A draw away against a country that was until recently number one was undeniably a good achievement lethal_strauss

The incident allowed Smith, just 15 at the time, to score 105 as his side built a decisive lead - and prompted several complaints from the England camp.

But the following day Harper, again controversially, overturned a decision against another South African batsman, AB de Villiers, as England continued to struggle for inroads.

Strauss, however, preferred to focus on the two sides' performances rather than that of the officials.

"I think you've got to give a lot of credit to Graeme and his team, they didn't give us a sniff in this Test match," he said.

"They played exceptionally well and I think losing four wickets in the first hour cost us quite badly.

"I would have liked us to show a bit more fight, but I am pleased with the character we showed overall on this tour."

Graeme Swann shared the man of the series award with South Africa wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who hit 341 runs in the series.

But the spinner matched his skipper's frank assessment of England's performance at Centurion.

"It leaves a bit of a sour taste because we have been thoroughly outplayed," he said.

"Coming into this last game we had high hopes of winning this series but as it turned out we didn't turn up for five days and got hammered."

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