As the South Africans completed a sweep of the five-match ODI series, piling atop the Australians’ struggles in the 3-0 result in the Sri Lanka Tests, there was a distinct sense that Smith and company are in need of a circuit-breaker.

David Warner did his best to provide one in the last one-dayer in Cape Town, making 173 in an attempt to chase down the target of 327. The Aussies fell 31 runs short, and the Proteas will head to Australia – albeit for a different format of cricket – with the momentum.

“We’ve been outplayed in all five games, in every facet of the game,” Smith said in the post-match conference. “In regards to batting, we just haven’t been able to put enough partnerships together.

“Having said that, Davey was magnificent today. When you play in this part of the world, forties don’t really cut it. You have to go on and get big scores, which is what the South Africans have done.

“I’ve never played in a one-day series where we’ve lost all five games. We’ve been outplayed, but the group has stuck together well … We just haven’t been able to go out and do the business.”

Warner also finished off the Sri Lanka series strongly, and for a batsman who has long performed much better at home than abroad (his Test average in Australia is 60.56; away 38.53), he’s bullish about the summer ahead.

“For us, it’s about going back home and concentrating on what we have to do,” he said. “It’s always handy being in form, but we went through a patch in Sri Lanka where it was quite challenging in those conditions. We were playing on nice wickets here which were quite similar to home.”