This Boxing Day Test in Melbourne brings us another step nearer our goal that we set ourselves a year ago, to win Test series in India, England and Australia.

From our point of view we have had three of the toughest tours this year with India, England and now here. We drew in India, we won in England and, if we can close off this series here in Australia, it will be an incredible performance for this team and probably the most successful season ever for South African cricket.

That is what we have the chance to achieve and to beat Australia in Australia is something everybody would like to have in their career.

As a sportsman a Boxing Day Test is one of those great occasions. We will obviously discuss a few things and be as well prepared as we can from that side but on the day it is a motivation to perform well. There is no greater occasion to perform well.

For me, it is nice to come back here after our tour in 2005 and see how far I have progressed in my life and my career and how things have changed.

Mentally you look forward to coping with these challenges as best you can. Fortunately I have been batting well through it and I have been able to adapt my game quite well.

But it is something that we need to deal with in the longer run because I can't keep treating it like this over a long period of time, so we need to plan the way forward. At the moment our focus is purely on this Test match and we don't want anything to get in the way of that.

Regarding some of the criticism aimed at Australia, I was surprised at some of the media reports and statements after the Test match. It wasn't something I expected. Having played against Australia for some time they are always composed and well directed, so it did come as a surprise.

But it does not affect our preparation or the way we think. They have picked a formidable team for this Test match and they will come out to play an aggressive game and take the game to us, so we will have to be focused and ready.

We put our peg in the ground at Perth and we have made them respect us a huge amount as we do respect them. But from a psychological aspect we know we have got a lot more petrol in our tank. It took something special to win the Test match and I expect much the same again with a pretty even contest.