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Against a backdrop of heavy criticism and intense pressure, Australian captain Ricky Ponting used test cricket's biggest stage - Boxing Day at the MCG - to underline his fighting qualities.
In front of 63,263 spectators, Ponting scored a masterful century, full of exquisite strokeplay at a time when he and his team sorely needed it.
Five days earlier, he had watched South Africa chase down a seemingly unachievable target of 414 on the final day of the first test at the WACA.
That left Australia in danger of losing their first home series in 16 years and Ponting under siege for what was viewed by many as negative body language during the final day's play.
He entered the Boxing Day test in shaky form with the bat, his lean recent run including a golden duck on the opening day in Perth.
Ponting came to the crease in what have become all-too-familiar circumstances for Australia, veteran opener Matthew Hayden again falling cheaply, caught at backward point for eight.
Ponting, too, looked shaky early and paceman Dale Steyn found the edge when he was on 24, the chance put down in the slips.
But after reaching lunch unbeaten on 27, Ponting returned to unleash a beautiful array of drives and lashed three consecutive boundaries off the front foot from Makhaya Ntini to race past his half-century.
He then moved from 50 to 100 in 39 deliveries.
The anticipation in the crowd was palpable as Ponting's 37th test century neared and he did not hide his delight when he reached it, whirling his bat in triumph before raising it to teammates and fans.
He fell soon after, popping a simple catch to short leg from the bowling of spinner Paul Harris in the over before tea.
While Ponting's personal concerns eased, those over two of his most accomplished batting colleagues, Hayden and Mike Hussey, deepened.
For Hayden, the feeling grows that the curtain is about to fall on his test career.
He had hoped a return to the MCG, the scene of six test centuries in the past seven years, could lift him from his form trough.
But he has now averaged just 22.30 in eight tests since returning from an Achilles injury.
Hussey's form is similarly bleak, out for a duck feathering a catch behind as he attempted to leave a Steyn delivery, his third duck in five innings.
- AAP