Captain Dean Elgar disappointed by weak Proteas performance

South Africa lost by an innings and 182 runs as they could only reach 204 before being bowled out in the second innings, as Temba Bavuma top scored with 65 runs.

Elgar, who was dismissed for a duck early in the innings on Wednesday, admitted the series has delivered more negatives than positives for the team, as they now have pride to play for in the final Test in Sydney next week.

"Currently a lot going through the mind, but I kinda made peace with it last night. Whether it was today or tomorrow, it was always going to be a tough pill to swallow," said Elgar.

"Not a lot of positives, there are a few, but the negatives outweigh the positives currently. A pretty weak performance, I'd say, in conditions which I really felt were pretty in favour of really good Test cricket.

"So, ja, pretty disappointed with how things ended up. Whether it was today or tomorrow, I still wanted to see us going out with a fighting chance and giving the Aussies a bit of a tough time, with really taking pride in our wickets. And the way it unfolded is quite disappointing."

Pressed on what the positives were, he singled out the bowling efforts of Anrich Nortje, who managed figures of 3/92, while wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne scored 52 and 33 in the two innings.

"Nortje is obviously the one that jumps out, Kyle Verreynne really batted well in this Test, so those are obviously the two stand-out performers that I would say are the biggest positives going into the next one," Elgar added.

"But a lot more negatives that I'll keep to myself for now."

The 35-year-old also admitted there was little-to-no courage shown with the bat, while the opposite can be said of the bowling unit, who toiled in the scorching Melbourne heat as the Aussies went on to record 575/8 before declaring with a lead of 386.

"I don't think there has been a lot of it [courage], I think there's been a lot more with the ball in hand. Take away the Gabba result, just purely out of this MCG Test, I think a lot more character was shown with the ball," noted the skipper.

"Even though the Aussies batted us into the ground, I really saw a lot of characters come out in our bowling ranks, maybe not as much in our batting – I mentioned Kyle, he's maybe the one guy that's put up two decent performances in this Test.

"Ja... It's a tough one to digest currently, but if we did this in two days' time, I'm sure I could have given you a lot more feedback."