Cape Town, Jan 7 (IANS): West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin has accepted middle-order batting failures led to his side's defeat in the just ended Test series against South Africa.

Ramdin said his team’s batting was left exposed by his and veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul's failure, reports CMC.

Ramdin’s concession comes as the West Indies slumped to their seventh straight series loss to South Africa, losing the third test by eight wickets at Newlands Tuesday. The West Indies lost the three-match series 0-2.

"Everyone expected Shiv and myself to get some more runs. Shiv has been doing it for the past six or seven years that I have been around,” said the West Indies skipper Tuesday, who has not been able to build on the form he showed over the last two years.

“And then I didn't have the best time. Hopefully in the one-day series, I will get some runs."

In 10 Tests between November 2012 and June this year, Ramdin averaged a shade under 50, scored two centuries and three fifties.

But his recent Test form has flagged with just five runs from two Tests against Bangladesh in the previous series.

Chanderpaul, with 91 runs from five innings, has had the leanest tour among the West Indian specialist batsmen and finished with exactly the same numbers as the captain himself.

"It's the first time I have seen Shiv fail" declared Ramdin.

Ramdin and Chanderpaul were supposed to provide stability to the West Indies middle- order but were forced to watch as the likes of emerging batsmen Kraigg Brathwaite and Leon Johnson stood out.

"We need to take ownership of our game,” said Ramdin.

“We make 60s and 70s and think we can keep our place for the next series but we need to score back to back hundreds”.

The first T20 between West Indies and South Africa will be played in Cape town Friday.