Marcus North admitted his achievement had yet to sink in after hitting a century on Test debut for Australia.
Kallis delighted with landmark, not so happy with Australia's total
Marcus North admitted his achievement had yet to sink in after hitting a century on Test debut for Australia.
The left-hander made the most of his chance against South Africa,
hitting 117 in the first Test of the series in Johannesburg.
Mitchell Johnson contributed a boundary-filled 96 not out to help the tourists get up to 466 in their first innings. The Proteas closed day two on 85-3 in reply.
"I'm pretty chuffed, very pleased to get an opportunity to play for Australia and to get a hundred on debut," a delighted North said.
"I'm sure it will sink in over the next couple of days. Throughout the whole innings I felt under pressure.
"I felt pretty balanced out there and pretty focused on getting through some tough times and doing a job for Australia."
Partnerships
North shared century stands with wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin (63) and number nine Johnson as he batted for just short of six hours.
South Africa found life tough going at the start of their first innings, losing skipper Graeme Smith for a second-ball duck to get off to a disastrous start.
"Credit to us, I thought we handled the critical moments in the game and really got some big partnerships when it was needed," the Victorian added.
"I think if you're putting enough balls in the right area, with the ball swinging and nipping around a little bit, you never feel comfortable.
"And we showed that if you put enough good balls in the area, you're certainly going to create chances, so that's what we'll be looking to do tomorrow."
Jacques Kallis, who also fell in the final session of play, admitted the hosts had not helped themselves by letting Australia get too many with the bat.
"They probably got too many on that deck," he said. "There is a little bit in there for the bowlers, we're disappointed that they got as many as they did.
"Having said that, I thought they did play well and put us under pressure as well, which made us miss the right areas.
"We were probably just a fraction short the whole innings, where I think Australia got the ball in the right areas more often.
"But we're still not out of it, we are from being out of it. The guys will knuckle down and hopefully we can come back tomorrow and bat a full day and get close to the score."
Milestone
All-rounder Kallis fell for 27 though he did manage one highlight in his innings, as he became only the eighth batsman in Test history to reach 10,000 runs.
"It is important," he said about his personal milestone.
"When I started if someone said I would have got 10,000 runs, gee, I would have taken that with both hands and wouldn't have believed them.
"It's probably something that I'll look back at when I finish the game and appreciate it more than I do probably now."
