Man of the moment Peter Siddle says he now feels worthy of his place in the Australian line-up after snaring his maiden Test match five-for on day three of the third Test at the SCG.
Siddle announced his arrival on the international scene on Monday in just his fourth match in the Baggy Green, ripping through the stubborn South African tail in an inspired spell to finish with the attractive figures of 5-59.
"It's very pleasing to get my first five-for and I feel happy about that obviously," the modest 24-year-old said having helped restrict the visitors to 327 in their first innings.
"It's just good to be able to go out there and just be able to stand up for the team and just be a part of the team and everyone bowled well and we all worked together and it was a good result."
Siddle, who entered the Sydney Test having taken five wickets for the series at an average of 48, admits the pressure of playing the game at the highest level is relentless.
After a disappointing outing in Perth in which he captured a solitary scalp, the former woodchopper admitted struggling for confidence.
He credits some solid work in the nets before his home Test in Melbourne for his sudden resurgence.
"There's always pressure, I had a disappointing match over in Perth and the 13th man (Ben Hilfenhaus) had come into the squad so there's pressure on everyone I think," he explained.
"You want to stand up and just get your rhythm right and start bowling well and I hadn't bowled well (in Perth) so I wanted to just work on a few things and get a few things into my game."
"And that's where it all happened (at the MCG) and I started feeling comfortable and started to feel a lot better so it's all going well at the moment."
Asked the motivation behind his destructive spell at the Proteas tail which yielded 4-8 from 5.5 overs, a remorseless Siddle suggested: "They seem to give it to us when we get out there and bat so they've got to cop it back I suppose as well."
"When you've worked hard all day you want to try and get a few more wickets so I think you've just got to keep running in and keep crashing the wicket and I was lucky enough to get the results so it was a good finish."
Australia will take an overall lead of 151 runs into day four on a deteriorating SCG deck.