This was not the first time The Oval has witnessed a setback for English cricket. It was here, after all, that the legend of the Ashes was born in 1882, that the West Indies completed their 'blackwash' in 1984 and New Zealand sentenced England to bottom place in the Test rankings in 1999. But there has rarely been an occasion when England have been so comprehensively outplayed as they have been in this Test. The innings and 12-run marginof victory - crushing though it looks - hardly does justice to the overwhelming difference between the sides. South Africa only lost two wickets to England's 20. This was a massacre.