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Each of the three Australian debutants - Marcus North, Phillip Hughes and Ben Hilfenhaus - played their part in the win
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As Australia neared victory on the final afternoon at the Wanderers,
Ricky Ponting stood at second slip and surveyed the men closest to him. The cordon was made up of Ponting, the debutants
Marcus North and
Phillip Hughes, and also Andrew McDonald, who was playing his second Test. Even the wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was less than a year into his
Test career.
For anyone who hadn't fully comprehended the magnitude of change in
Australian cricket over the past few months, it was a telling image.
Barely a year ago, the same positions would have been occupied by Adam
Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, and going back a further 12 months,
Shane Warne and Justin Langer.
Also scattered around the field were the debutant fast bowler
Ben
Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle, who was in his fifth Test. When Mitchell
Johnson fired in a full one that bowled Dale Steyn, Ponting collected
the stumps and distributed them among his new colleagues. Each of them
deserved a reward. Whereas Ponting spoke of the team's "passengers"
during the series in Australia, every player contributed in
Johannesburg.
Of the debutants, North's 117 in the first innings was the standout.
Hughes' fighting 75 in the second innings was also important and
Hilfenhaus did what he was asked to do - he ran in hard all day, swung
the ball and collected three wickets for the game, including the key
breakthroughs of Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher in the second innings.
Each of their efforts pleased Ponting but none shocked him.
"I'm not surprised that Hilfenhaus came in and bowled well because I
know what he's capable of," Ponting said. "I'm not surprised that
Hughes came in and made runs because he's been making runs for the
last couple of years in domestic cricket in Australia. I'm not
surprised that North did because he's an experienced player that has
faced his own challenges in a very high domestic competition in
Australia.
"I'm not surprised by what they've achieved. Now it's a matter of
those guys being able to do it again next week. That's what Test
cricket is all about. You don't get the luxury of having a couple of
weeks between games to get yourself prepared again. It's about
bouncing back in a couple of days."
There are several men back in Australia who will be watching with
interest to see how the fresh faces respond after their opening win.
Stuart Clark, Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson would all
have been in the starting line-up in Johannesburg had they been fit.
If the new boys can continue to thrive at the highest level, there is
no guarantee that there will be places for the more experienced men
later this year.
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Injured stars like Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds can't expect to walk right back into the XI
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Clark is a must-pick but Australia will learn more over the next few
weeks about how much they really need the out-of-form Lee, the
ill-disciplined Symonds and the injury-prone Watson. With an Ashes
tour coming up during the Australian winter, now is the perfect time
for the likes of North, Hughes, Hilfenhaus and McDonald to complete
irresistible auditions.
But for all the hype the Ashes will bring, the past four Tests have
shown just how highly South Africa-Australia contests deserve to be
rated. For the second time in successive Tests these sides have taken
the match into the final session of the fifth day and ended with a
result. The Perth and Melbourne Tests that came before weren't over
before lunch on the last day.
The battles have been so tight and unpredictable that with a day to
play in Johannesburg, few onlookers were prepared to confidently tip a
winner. At a time when Tests in the West Indies and Pakistan have
featured such high totals that draws appear inevitable, the South
Africa-Australia bouts have been immeasurably valuable for a five-day
format that is trying to hold its place as the game's pre-eminent
style.
One of the reasons Test cricket may have lost some popularity over the
past decade was the fact that Australia dominated so comprehensively.
Since the days of Mark Taylor's captaincy they have been underdogs as
often as the Harlem Globetrotters. That they flew into South Africa a
fortnight ago without being favourites was a major shift in the game's
foundations.
That they won the opening Test with one of their least experienced
teams in 20 years is good for cricket. Fierce and even competition
between the world's top teams can only be positive for the game. The
challenge for Australia's young squad now is to prove that their
display was not a one-off.
Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo