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Pakistan vice-captain Inzamam-ul-Haq Sunday admitted that Australia were heads and shoulders above the rest but contested that battle for the second placed team was still wide open.

"If you believe in ratings, then South Africa are the second best and Pakistan placed eighth. But if you analyse the overall strengths of rest of the teams, then South Africa and Pakistan are neck-and-neck.

"It would not be an over-statement if I say that we are a neck ahead. Ratings at times can be misleading, as in this particular case," Inzamam, who turns 32 on March 3, and a veteran of 75 Tests and 251 One-day Internationals, said.

Australia strengthened their position on top of the ladder after thrashing South Africa by nine wickets inside four days at Melbourne to take an impregnable 2-0 lead in the three-Test series.

"Australia have set very high standards which I believe is good for world cricket. Rest of the teams are now targeting to emulate Australia which has lifted the overall standard of the game," he said.

The burly batsman said the confirmation of who was the second best team after Australia was unlikely to be decided before the end of next year.

"Our next year's series in South Africa will determine who deserves to be rated second best. The series is too far away and a lot of cricket has to be played until then. But I believe that series will be the battle for second place," he said.

Pakistan will play three Tests in South Africa in November- December 2002, immediately after hosting Australia for a three-Test series. When Pakistan last toured South Africa, they won the Durban Test but lost at Port Elizabeth.

On the contrary, South Africa won at Faisalabad in 1997-98 to win the series 1-0.

"The only thing that separates Pakistan from South Africa is consistency. We are striving hard to achieve that. But I must say here that we have an excellent record outside Pakistan.

"The only place where we have struggled is in our own backyard," country's most consistent batsman said.

Pakistan have lost all their previous four home series but drew the Test series in South Africa, beat India in India in 1999 (2-1 if Asian Test Championship game is included), defeated Sri Lanka 2-0 in 2000 before drawing series in New Zealand and England this year.

"We could have won the Test series in the West Indies but everyone know why we lost. Same was the story in Australia in 1999 when umpiring error cost us the Hobart Test. We would have been a different team in the final Test at Perth had Hobart game gone our way," he said.

Justin Langer was given not out by the home country umpire early on the fifth morning after Pakistan were defending 360 odd runs. Langer and Adam Gilchrist slammed centuries to steer Australia to a four-wicket victory.

"The way South Africa capitulated is not a surprise to me because, with all due respect to them, they don't have the bowling to dismiss a team like Australia twice in a match to win the Test. Allan Donald is playing after a long layoff and it would be asking for too much from Shaun Pollock to pick bulk of the wickets.

"At least, we gave Australia run for their money in 1999 and it was mainly due to our overall composition and balance of the team," Inzamam, who has scored 5,299-Test and 8,196 one- day runs, said. Inzamam opined that Pakistan had a complete and properly balanced team.

"We have good, aggressive batters and a battery of match- winning bowlers in Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Saqlain Mushtaq and Danish Kaneria.

"With such a balanced attack, we have the credentials to restrict any opponents to a low score even if the batters fail to put up a decent score. It should not be forgotten that batsmen win one-day matches while bowlers win Tests for their teams."

Inzamam may have the highest regards for his bowlers. But fact of the matter is Wasim has struggled for wickets, Shoaib and Sami have spent more time outside the field, Saqlain has not been as devastating and Danish is a novice to international cricket.

"You can't have everything going your way. But who would deny that these are marvellous bowlers and still not many batsmen in the world would like to face them.

"Besides in Abdur Razzaq, we have a world-class all-rounder. Modern day cricket has proved that each team needs to have a player like Razzaq to give proper balance to the side," he said.

Inzamam said his team's main objective in the coming year would be to improve consistency. "We would like to win everything that we contest for.

"World Cup is definitely on top of the list but it is Test cricket in which we would like to improve. Teams are rated, ranked and followed on their performance in Test arena rather that in one-day cricket because the followers of the game are knowledgeable enough to judge that in one-day cricket the team that does well on that particular day wins, irrespective of the conditions and opponents, "he concluded.

© Dawn