The best Test series in Australia for decades

Peter Roebuck, writing in The Witness, feels the climax of the Sydney Test provided a fitting end to a closely fought series.

Television cameras kept flashing across to the visitors’ bench where the coach was observed chuckling nervously one minute and covering his eyes the next. By the way the thunder continued rolling around without ever delivering its contents. But the overall impression was of a team at ease with itself, a team committed to victory but unencumbered with earnestness let alone zealotry

Ray White, writing in the same newspaper, questions the scheduling of the return series, the usual rubber between Australia and South Africa being confined to three Tests, and the relatively low frequency of the contests between the two teams.

Graeme Smith's heroic effort in Sydney prompts Mike Smit, writing in Business Day, to have a change of heart regarding his views on the South African captain