WHAT a difference a couple of months can make. It was at the same Chester-le-Street venue back in July that England cruised to an eight-wicket victory over Australia to secure an unbeatable lead in the NatWest Series.

It was also the fifth win in a row post-Kevin Pietersen’s announcement to quit the one-day game after his request to only play for his country in Twenty20 matches caused a stir.

Ignoring everything else which has followed the Pietersen circus around since – except to say the furore ended with him being omitted from the initial central contract list announced on Friday – and the results and performances speak for themselves.

Suddenly an England squad charging towards becoming the world’s best side in every form of cricket has found itself struggling to maintain the exceptionally high standards they had been setting themselves.

A second visit to the Durham Emirates ICG on Saturday was another one of those days, with the tourists celebrating a fifth win over their hosts of the summer.

In fairness the turnaround and dip in form since the Aussies appeared has been at the hands of a South African unit capable of taking over the mantle from England for some time to come.

After replacing England at the top of the Test rankings courtesy of their series win, South Africa earned a draw in the ODI series before starting the three-match Twenty20 NatWest Series with a win on Saturday.

It was not just any other win either. South Africa, who can be toppled from top spot in the shortest form of the game’s rankings only if they lose twice over the next 48 hours, won with seven wickets and an over to spare with the sun shining down on the County Durham wicket.

Hardly ideal preparation for England. With such a tight schedule before the World Cup starts on September 18, captain Stuart Broad is conscious of his squad hitting balls more than they need to after a summer packed with cricket.

“It’s tricky moving forward, do we hit the nets? Because you don’t want to be hitting all of the time,” said Broad, ahead of today’s second T20 date at Old Trafford.

“It’s been a long cricket season.

The boys have hit a lot this summer. It’s a mental switch on and that’s probably what could have been the problem out there. Mental. It could be that we need to think about what we are doing (rather than hitting the nets more) to sort out a few things.”

For England to head for Sri Lanka in under two weeks time and retain the Twenty20 World Cup that Paul Collingwood lifted above his head in March 2010 then his successor is going to have to come up with something special. And, of course, achieve it without the talented Pietersen.

It seemed to have started reasonably well on Saturday despite Alex Hales, regarded by many as Pietersen’s replacement, being run out by Jaques Kallis after facing just six balls for 11 when he was sent back after a dose of bad decision making.

Opener Craig Kieswetter had pushed his way to 25 in the opening six-over power play but when he went in the very next ball it was an uphill struggle from there on in for England.

Kieswetter was caught by the turn and flight of Johnan Botha’s delivery heading for off stump got him lbw, which was merely the start of England’s frustrations. In the space of 45 runs England had lost Ravi Bopara (6), Eoin Morgan (10), Jos Buttler (6), Jonathan Bairstow (15) and Samit Patel (4) before Broad and Graeme Swann attempted to save face.

The unlikely pairing put on 33 between them to push England up towards a 117-7 finish, which was England’s third lowest total recorded in the ten years of Twenty20 cricket.

“It was a similar batting performance (to the last ODI on Wednesday against SA), with some soft dismissals,” admitted Broad. “The one thing we have to be wary of in Twenty20 cricket is that you don’t win games with No. 10 and No. 11 batting, so we have to take responsibility of having a batsman there at the end.”

If England are struggling on their own turf against the likes of Robin Peterson (2-27) and Botha (2-19) then it seems unlikely they will be able to deal with the conditions in Sri Lanka later this month.

South Africa had no such problems. After Richard Levi was caught at slip on eight by Swann from Jade Dernbach’s length delivery and Faf du Plessis was hit plumb lbw by Steven Finn for just four England sensed a revival.

But after AB de Villiers (10) edged Dernbach to Kieswetter with South Africa sitting on just 29, the stage was taken over by Kallis and Jean-Paul Duminy.

Despite ending the power play on the same number of runs as England at that stage and with two more wickets down, Broad and the rest of his attack couldn’t claim another wicket.

Kallis (48) and Duminy (47) amassed a fourth wicket stand of 90 from 91 deliveries to see South Africa over the line and lift the optimism in the Proteas’ camp for the series and the upcoming World Cup.

“It was very similar pitch conditions to what we expect in Sri Lanka,” said a clearly satisfied de Villiers. “The bowlers had a very clear plan from the moment they went out. Overall it is good preparation for us.

“Each bowler was on the money, they stuck to the clear plan in front of them and they did their jobs. We also have got experience in this team like Kallis. It’s great to have Jaques back.

“I believe everyone in this squad will be ready going in to the World Cup. If we keep winning then everyone will feed off that.” If only it was that straight-forward for England.