Up chances Down Under.

South Africa skipper Graeme Smith still clearly has to learn from his mistakes after he declared his side the team to beat ahead of their three-Test tour of Australia. The Proteas are yet to win a Test series Down Under. And Smith need only look back to 2005-2006, when the tourists lost the series 2-0 on the back of some aggressive talk from the young skipper. To be fair to the South Africans, they are unbeaten in their last nine series, winning eight of them and drawing away in India, where the Aussies were recently beaten 2-0. And this time, Smith is not so much targeting the world No.1 side as talking up his own personnel. The opener famously tried to stir up trouble by questioning the authority of Australia skipper Ricky Ponting last time out. But this time he said: "The reality is, it's probably our best chance of winning out of all five tours, and everyone knows that. "Dale Steyn, on current form, is the leading strike bowler in the world, Makhaya Ntini is one of the most experienced and Morne Morkel one of the most promising. "We have a settled opening pair, the middle order has been functioning superbly for over a year, Jacques Kallis is probably the best all rounder in the world and Mark Boucher is the most experienced and statistically the best wicketkeeper the game has seen." Coach Mickey Arthur tried to take the pressure off his pace attack as he added: "People must realise that our guys are still young. "They are not the West Indies attack of the 90s, as written up in England. "But they are learning all the time and there's unbelievable potential."

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