'Comprehensive beating' on Smith's mind

In a city where nearly every conversation involves talk of hosting next year's FIFA World Cup, it would be understandable if cricket was on the backburner. But this is not just any series. For South Africa, this is the big one.

South African fans stayed up until all hours watching their side's historic series win in Australia and now comes the chance to see their boys humble the Australians first-hand. That's the plan, anyway.

There is more than a series victory on the line. Whichever side takes the prize, also takes the No. 1 Test ranking, which has been held by Australia for all but a five-month period in 2003 when the South Africans briefly owned it. Locals say there hasn't been this much hype for a home series since Australia's first post-apartheid visit in 1993-94 and the Wanderers is hoping to attract record crowds.

"It's great. It's obviously fantastic to have the hype and to see cricket in such a good light in the country and generally the feel around the country is terrific," South Africa's captain Graeme Smith said. "People coming to the stadium is a bonus for us. It's a real energy booster."

While most of Australia's squad were occupied with the one-day series against New Zealand in the weeks leading up to this series, South Africa's men headed home to wrestle crocodiles or have their wisdom teeth removed or whack a few balls around in the domestic Twenty20 competition. The challenge has been to refocus this week, such a short time after their 2-1 triumph away.

Failing to beat Australia at home would not remove the thrill of the MCG victory, where they became the first South African side to win a Test series in Australia. But it would put an end to their plans to build a long-term hold over Australia, just as teams under Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ponting have done to South Africa in the past.

"Our focus is on playing better cricket than Australia in this series and if we can really beat them at home it will be a comprehensive beating of Australia home and away," Smith said. "That's something that we really want to achieve. They were able to do it against us for a period of time and we feel that we're capable of doing it but it's going to be tough work.

"It's a sign of the success that we've had if we do get there [to No. 1]. We basically can look at ourselves and say we've earned that ranking through good results, through winning on pretty much every continent over the last period of time. That's a really good, satisfying feeling for any team, for any player."

It's a feeling that has been familiar to Ricky Ponting for most of his Test career. How times change. Australia enter this series as the underdogs, and by quite a margin. There is a strong chance they will play three debutants - Phillip Hughes, Marcus North and Ben Hilfenhaus - in Johannesburg, and it would be the first time more than two baggy-greens had been handed out in one game since Merv Hughes, Bruce Reid and Geoff Marsh all learnt the ropes together at Adelaide Oval in 1985-86.

It creates a serious challenge for Ponting to gel together a group of men that as yet aren't really a team so much as a collection of new boys from all over Australia. In the cauldron of the Wanderers, the new players as well as the old heads must remember how to win the big moments, which they failed to do in Australia.

"We've spoken about the moments of the last series where we were a bit deficient," Ponting said. "The guys have learnt a lot from those moments and what we have to do better next time. We can't forget that some of these guys are playing their fourth, fifth, some of them are playing their first Test out here.

"Even though they won the Melbourne Test by nine wickets, the end result in that game could have been a lot different if we had just had one more hour of play early on that third day go our way. There's no doubt they were the better team…at the end of the day we can take a lot from the fact that at different times in that series our best cricket was probably a lot better than theirs."

Against an unchanging, consistent and confident South African side, Ponting's men will need more than the odd flash of brilliance to avoid losing their No. 1 ranking. South Africa's fans might not see their country win the World Cup next year, but there's every chance they will be able to bask in cricketing glory over the coming weeks.