Graeme Smith plots revenge

Graeme Smith was ever defiant after Ricky Ponting batted Australia to a 2-0 series triumph at Sydney on Friday, promising a tough time for the Australians in their return Test series in South Africa in March.

Ponting scored an unbeaten 143 as Australia easily chased down the 287-run target with more than 15 of the innings' allotted 76 overs remaining to win the final Sydney Test by eight wickets on the last day. Smith's gamble to declare an hour before lunch backfired but the South Africans were only interested in winning the match and not holding out for a draw having fallen behind in the series after the defeat at Melbourne.

"When we get back home in front of our supporters, we're going to play for a win," Smith said. "We're going to back ourselves, we're going to be confident, we're going to stand up and we're not going to back down. Certainly, when Australia come to South Africa it's going to be one of their toughest times ever."

Smith blamed missed opportunities for his team's series loss here and urged his players to develop a killer attitude to knock over Australia the next time they meet.

"In the first two Tests we let ourselves down in key moments, so that's certainly one key area we can look at, " he admitted. "A team like Australia has been dominant over the last few years and when they get into that mode where they can smell the kill, they take it and that's an area that we're looking to get to. I believe that against any other team in the world we would have won this series, we would have dominated the series. We still believe we can beat them, other teams think they can beat them. Credit to them, they've played the better cricket, they got the better results, and we're looking forward to the home series."

Smith backed his declaration decision as being positive and right for his team and for cricket. "Everyone in the whole team wanted to be positive this morning and go for a win," he said.

Smith said his team can take heart from the series with Jacques Rudolph batting for over seven hours to save the first Perth Test and having Australia in early trouble in Melbourne and amassing 451 for nine in the first innings of the Sydney Test. He said, "I think we've dominated a large portion of this Test match. We've had our noses in front the whole game and because of the weather we had to take a very big risk on a pitch that was probably playing like a third-day wicket.

"I think for a side that's come here with a lot of guys playing in Australia for the first time we'll take a lot of positives out of it."