Pollock: Selectors were right to dump the Waughs

South African captain Shaun Pollock said Australian selectors were right to have dropped Steve and Mark Waugh and gamble on a new-look squad for the World Cup defence next year.

Pollock said veteran Darren Lehmann had been an ideal choice to help Australia through the uncertain period following the demise of two of the country's greatest players.

Australia has not lost a match since new captain Ricky Ponting took over last month, and take a 5-0 lead into Tuesday's final clash with South Africa in Cape Town.

"It takes a brave team to drop the Waugh brothers but if you look it's probably the right decision," Pollock said after Australia posted a world record run chase in Port Elizabeth yesterday.

"It's always difficult to replace experience but with the set-up in Australia it produces good cricket and tough cricketers.

"When you replace someone like the Waugh brothers you've got to do it with a person like Lehmann, who has played 70-odd one-dayers.

"With his experience, he's a good foil to replace the experience of the Waughs."

Lehmann has been among the shining lights in an Australian team which was supposed to be rebuilding in South Africa after selectors moved on from the successful Waugh era.

The departure of the Waughs left Australia without the experience of 579 matches but Ponting's team reached new heights yesterday when it posted the winning score of 7-330 with five balls to spare.

The win featured 91 runs from Lehmann, whose years of experience in Australian and English domestic cricket have clearly helped Ponting and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist.

"We've lost nearly 600 games in experience but we've still got a lot of experienced blokes around us," Ponting said.

"I've played nearly 140 games now and Gilly has played 130-odd and then you have Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath so there is a lot of experience around.

"The first few games here we did enough to win, just hanging around. We've all grown a bit from those games and we didn't expect too much from that."

But Pollock won't concede that South Africa has a huge mental problem against Australia as he tries to convince supporters that the Proteas are simply enduring a bad run.

"They have a good side and they're going to win a lot of games but I don't believe they're unbeatable," Pollock said.

"In the World Cup, if we did get to play them it would be a one-off game and anything can happen then."

Pollock has lamented the lack of experience in his team compared to Australia, which will start short-priced favourite to complete a 6-0 drubbing in the final match in Cape Town on Tuesday.