Proteas seamer Makhaya Ntini was happy with the opening day’s play in the second Test against Australia at the MCG in Melbourne on Friday and claimed it as “a job well done.”

The veteran quick picked up two wickets on Friday, including that of out-of-form Aussie opener Matthew Hayden, who Ntini has now picked up nine times in his career.

Incredibly, no bowler has taken Hayden's wicket more times and no batsman has been dismissed by Ntini more often — making the burly Queenslander the likeable South African’s ‘bunny’.

But despite Ntini’s hold over the batsman, he is not willing to take the Australian lightly — knowing full well what the big opener is capable of, particularly at the MCG.

"He's hitting the ball very well, if you bowl like I did a bit full," Ntini told Cricinfo.

"Cricket has ways of… showing your downfalls, if you get frustrated very quickly, those kinds of things are easy to show. But if you are a hard-working person... you never know. He might come out in the second innings and score a hundred."

Hayden aside, Ntini was happy with the way the South African bowling attack fired on Friday after keeping the Australians to 280 for six. And, as they did in Perth, the visitors kept the top six quiet, with the exception of Simon Katich (54) and skipper Ricky Ponting — the latter making a timely return to form with a superb ton.

"We had to put in a lot of hard work today because the heavy outfield makes a huge difference," Ntini said. "As a batting side you always want to make sure that on the first day you have to pass 300. So for us I should say we've done very well not to let them pass 300 on the first day. We will take that day as a job well done."

Ponting, meanwhile, was reasonably happy with his side’s performance on Friday, although he admitted that Hayden’s form was a big worry for the side.

"His (Hayden) results are (a worry)," Ponting said. "The way he started this morning, he looked particularly sharp. He hasn't got the runs that he would have hoped for and that we would have hoped for. He'll get another opportunity in the second innings and then hopefully he can grab hold of that one with both hands and make a big score."

"We've had a reasonable day today I think," Ponting said. "It's pretty hard to gauge who's come out on top today because the outfield as you saw was reasonably slow so 280 to us is probably worth a bit over 300 today I'd imagine."


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