South Africa captain Shaun Pollock acknowledged that what took place at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday was not Test cricket. And neither does he believe that it should be upgraded to full Test status at some future date.

"I don't think that would be right," said Pollock "You need to know (that it is a Test match) before the start of the game."

The fact that the match would not be recognised as a Test by the ICC "took the edge off", said Pollock. "You know that it's not a fully-fledged Test. We were probably a little more relaxed than we would be before a real Test."

On a measure of one to 10, Pollock said that the current contest was "just under where a Test should be". It was. Nevertheless, "good practice. We've got a tough tour of Australia coming up and I would think it would be good practice for India before they play England".

He said that the Indian side clearly felt more strongly about the events of the past few days than the South Africans, but said that "from the South African public's point of view, it's good to have a game".