It was an outstanding team win; a fantastic comeback

Steve Waugh

Ponting brought up his 100 with a six

"He's probably the future of Australian cricket. He's going to be a great player if he's not one now.

"It was an outstanding team win; a fantastic comeback."

Ponting said he was delighted to have hit a six to bring up his century with the last ball of the match.

"Warney hit a couple of fours and kept apologising," said Ponting.

"To get a half-tracker with the square leg up was nice. Then I tried to hit it over the fence.

"I wasn't thinking of hitting a six. I just wanted to hit the winning runs for the team."

His South African counterpart Mark Boucher said that he was disappointed with the result but proud of the performance by his young side.

"The partnership that killed us was the opening stand between Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer," he said.

"If a couple of edges had gone our way, who knows what could have happened. But that's cricket.

"They took the game away by attacking Paul Adams up front and it's always difficult to dry the runs up when they're batting that way."

Boucher will continue to deputise for Shaun Pollock in Durban as the all-rounder struggles to recover from side strain.