CRICKET: South Africa captain Shaun Pollock gladly accepted the accolade as the highest-ranked Test team after his side pushed Australia off the top of the world standings with victory over Pakistan in Cape Town yesterday.
Due to the vagaries of the points system, South Africa top the International Cricket Council's Test championship table despite losing five of their last six Tests against Australia.
"If the rules work out that way and we are ranked number one we are going to take it. We won't laugh it off," Pollock said.
"You only play by the rules and when the rules went against us at Edgbaston in 1999 we had to suffer the consequences and Australia went through," Pollock added, referring to the World Cup semi-final of four years ago when South Africa were eliminated after a tie with Australia.
South Africa beat Pakistan by an innings and 142 runs to take the series 2-0 and top the standings for the first time since they were inaugurated in May 2001.
"Our aim is to move forward and we have an away series against Bangladesh which will count for points and we haven't beaten England away from home so that's another place we can pick up points," Pollock said.
"All we can do is pick up points against the teams we play against and win the series that we are involved in. The championship goes back six years or so, so there are a lot of people who played before that have got us here, so congratulations to them too." In recent years South Africa have scored away series wins in India and the West Indies and shared a series in Sri Lanka.
They were comprehensively outplayed in Australia in 2001/2002, where they lost all three Ests, and again at home during the series in February-March 2002.
But this season South Africa have beaten Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home.
"We don't play Australia again for a while which is a pity because you always want to test yourself against the best and compete against the guys who are rated as the best," Pollock said.
"Unfortunately that will take another three years, so we have to re-align our focus and make sure each series we go into, we come away with a win."
Pakistan captain Waqar Younissaid he thought Australia were still the better team. "I would say Australia still have an edge over South Africa," Waqar said.
Pakistan were bowled out for 252 and 226 in reply to South Africa's first innings total of 620 for seven declared.
P W L D Pts Ave
South Africa 17 13 3 1 27 1.59
Australia 13 9 2 2 20 1.54
New Zealand 17 8 5 4 20 1.18
Sri Lanka 16 8 6 2 18 1.13
England 16 6 6 4 16 1.00
India 15 5 6 4 14 0.93
West Indies 17 7 9 1 15 0.88
Pakistan 16 4 8 4 12 0.75
Zimbabwe 16 3 11 2 8 0.50
