The Lions, who face South Africa again at Derby on Saturday, were let down by their batsmen at Leicester’s Grace Road ground on Thursday as Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini each claimed three wickets.

South Africa, who did not field captain Graeme Smith, all-rounder Jacques Kallis and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, reached their target with 11 overs remaining.

Lions skipper Robert Key, his team’s top scorer with 51, said: “That was pretty much a drubbing really and that's not a true reflection of the two sides - I think we're a better side than that.

“Whoever you're playing for, it's always disappointed to get beaten like that when you know you should have done better because you walk off the field thinking we mucked up today and it should have been a lot tighter than that.

“We're probably more used to that sort of pitch than those guys are. It was a little damp in the morning but even so we should have been a little bit smarter with bat and ball."

The Lions were dismissed for a below-par 184, before Gibbs cracked 81 off 104 balls, which included six fours and a six, for their final score of 185-6. It was Gibbs’ first official outing of the tour for South Africa after he was left out of the Test tour.