Ponting came in with great Sheffield Shield numbers, looked great in the nets, had himself and his game in as good a shape as it has been for some time. He has, however, found the step up to the next level and out into the heat of the Test match as much a mental as a physical challenge. South Africa's quicks will find you out. They have the instruments to open up a crack and burrow into your weaknesses. Find a buried flaw. In two of the three times Ponting has been dismissed this series, they haven't needed to do that. In Brisbane, he played at a ball that could have been left, just as he did here. Unlike Gilchrist, Ponting doesn't know, but there is a hint there that for the first time he suspects. You can see the dismissal has rocked him, challenged his previously indomitable spirit. He can't work any harder. Anyone who has seen him in the nets will tell you that. There seems no technical adjustment to make. He will tell you that. "It's been a disappointing game," he admitted to Mark Taylor before play yesterday. "How do I feel form-wise? Probably, if anything I've been a little bit tentative, certainly in the first innings in Brisbane was a tentative shot and yesterday afternoon was a tentative shot. "That's not the normal way I play. I needed to be a bit more positive." Tentative? Ricky Ponting tentative? When you think about it, why not? Justin