"It is a nightmare for us at the moment. I don't know what we have to do to get a win," Smith said after a fourth defeat to Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Hosts Sri Lanka rested four key players, including skipper Marvan Atapattu and seamer Chaminda Vaas, but still cruised to a seven-wicket win.

"The dressing room is very down and disappointed. It is very quiet down there with a lot of soul searching go on.

"From a personal point of view, as captain, I am really disappointed in the way we have played as I know what we are capable of."

South Africa's worst ever losing streak spanned 10 matches in 1994. Their last one-day win came at the start of the series in New Zealand in February.

They did not look like ending in on Saturday despite a half-century from Shaun Pollock as leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi took three wickets.

"Our batsmen are finding it very difficult to score freely as their spinners are putting us under pressure and we are losing clusters of wickets," Smith added.

"When we are in the field we are bowling both sides of the wicket and it is a different ball game -- it looks like the pitch is a road when we are bowling.

"The lack of self confidence is a major problem and we are just making stupid errors," he added.

"It has been a steep learning curve and when we get on a winning streak again I am going to remember this and make sure we are ruthless."

Sri Lanka went 14 matches without a win in 1987 and '88 and stand-in captain Mahela Jayawardene, who scored 48 not out and shared an unbroken 98-run stand with Kumar Sangakkara, was in no doubt the tourists would recover.

"It can happen to any side and it has happened to us," he said. "I am sure though they will come back strongly.

"They have some really talented players and it is just a matter of them getting their confidence back.

"But we don't want them to get confidence back on this tour and that is why we have concentrated so hard on keeping them down."