Ricky Ponting conceded the broken hearts and troubled minds of his players would be hard to mend for this week's first Test after Australia was hijacked in the greatest one-day game of all time.
Ponting fears a sleeping giant may have awakened when South Africa successfully chased Australia's 4/434 in freakish scenes which could reinvent the way limited-overs cricket is played.
Both teams crashed through the 400-run barrier for the first time but it was South Africa that ended with an astonishing world record, while Ponting was left to work overtime on the psyche of his players.
He is worried the dejection of the unprecedented batting carnage and the 2-3 series loss may linger until Thursday's first Test in Cape Town. "We are really disappointed at the moment and I'm sure that will hang around a little while to tell you the truth," Ponting said.
"Hopefully not too many of those mental scars hang around this week. We've got to try to forget what's happened today as quickly as we can. South Africa can obviously gain a lot from that - they'll still have quite a few of this squad in their Test squad. There's a pretty short turnaround until the Test match . . . we've got to get away and work hard."
The amazing scenes at the Wanderers ground - where Ponting hit 164 off 105 balls which was then bettered by Herschelle Gibbs' unbelievable 175 off 111 - may never be repeated. Australia somehow lost the match it was never going to lose after hapless seamer Mick Lewis (0/113 off 10 overs) became the most expensive bowler ever. All Australia's bowlers were bruised and battered and the run hammering will renew calls for leg-spinner Shane Warne to rethink his self-imposed one-day cricket exile.
Ponting didn't know where to turn to break the 187-run stand between Gibbs and Graeme Smith (90 off 55 balls) which set South Africa on an amazing course for victory. He admitted Australia was at times seriously missing Warne in the one-day mode.
"It would have been nice to have Warnie out there," Ponting said.
"I don't know what Warnie's going to do. There's been a bit of speculation about him playing one-day cricket but we're going to have to wait and see.
"We had no defence mechanisms whatsoever against the way they were hitting the ball."
- BEN DORRIES