After taking six wickets in the first Test in Johannesburg to close out South Africa, with four tail-enders in two overs, Bevan once more declared: ``I still consider myself more a batsman and still put more work into batting than bowling.''

Yorkshire's overseas player for two seasons, the 26-year-old, now No 7 in the Australian line-up, has a Test batting average approaching 40 as Friday's second Test approaches at Port Elizabeth.

Bevan emphasised he was determined ``to make still a better batsman of myself. I'm very firm in that belief''.

He seems almost reluctant to talk about his development as a bowler, as though fearing that continued success with the ball might inhibit his further progress with the bat.

Quite what has suddenly catapulted Bevan from his role as occasional attacker for Yorkshire to front-rank Test wicket-taker is not at all clear - though the confidence shown in him by his captain Mark Taylor is clearly a factor, along with a smoother bowling rhythm.

Even the opinions of the two captains in the series here differ. South Africa studied Bevan on video before the game and Hansie Cronje, their captain, rated him, but added: ``The medium pace, at which Bevan bowls, means he can't turn the ball too much.''

Taylor, on the other hand, maintained that Bevan had slowed down (he was registering 63 mph on the Wanderers 'speedometer') and was therefore getting more turn. The Australian captain said: ``I believe he has enormous potential with both bat and ball. He has to some extent spurred on Warne and undoubtedly in turn has fed on Warne's experience.''

Certainly, in the Test at the Wanderers, it was Warne, perhaps closer to his best than at any time since his spinning-finger operation last May, who removed the South African top-order batsmen second time around. But it is now 11 Tests since the legspinner took five wickets in an innings.

Bevan has progressed like a forest fire. In his first six Tests he took only one wicket at a cost of 67 runs. Recalled last year after an absence of 18 months, he took 15 in four games against the West Indies - including 10 for 113 to win the match in Adelaide.

Even then, Bevan was happier to talk about his innings of 85 and was still dismissing his bowling as no more than an adjunct to his main game. And the tune has scarcely changed since.

Though he scored an unbeaten 38 against South Africa, Bevan had been dwarfed by that huge 385 partnership between Greg Blewett and Steve Waugh and sat padded up for so long that one of his colleagues joked he was suffering from a bruised rear-end.

Bevan probably did not see the humour of that remark. As Taylor says: ``He's not what you call a normal Aussie cricketer.

``He's not the guy who goes down to the pub after the game and has a beer. He'll go back to the gym and work out for an hour, even after a long day. But if that's what makes him tick, that's what he's got to do. Bevo is a perfectionist.''

Australia maintained their 100 per cent record with a 15-run win in their one-day game against an Eastern Province Invitation XI at Port Elizabeth.

The tourists have won all four first-class games - including the Wanderers Test - and four one-dayers.

The black township of Zwide was the setting for this latest victory on a ground packed with 4,000 cheering schoolchildren.