Katich, who scored 122, has gone up by four places and now sits in 14th position alongside India great Sachin Tendulkar. North, who struck an unbeaten 125, has rocketed 23 places to 43rd position while Haddin, who scored 121, has climbed six places to 30th spot.

Besides the trio, captain Ricky Ponting has also inched towards the top five after scoring an elegant 150 and is now in sixth place after swapping positions with Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardena.

Vice-captain Michael Clarke has replaced South Africa captain Graeme Smith in eighth place and opener Phillip Hughes has lifted himself two places to 33rd position.

Australia’s only disappointment is the fall of Mike Hussey whose first innings contribution of three has resulted in him dropping out of the top 20 for the first time since his rapid rise up the table at the start of his international career.

England’s only batsman to make an upward movement is Paul Collingwood who has returned to the top 20 by climbing five places to 19th position after scoring two half-centuries in the match, including a gritty 74 in the second innings that spanned almost six hours of batting.

Three of the top four England batsmen – Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara – have dropped in the latest rankings while Kevin Pietersen has managed to hang on to his 10th place.

Australia, at stumps at Sophia Gardens, were 249 for one in reply to England’s first innings 435, a deficit of 186.

Left-handed opener Katich, dropped early in his innings, was 104 not out and Ponting 100 not out, with their unbroken stand worth 189.

Katich, who has been at the crease for nearly five hours, became the first cricketer to score a Test hundred in Wales when he pulled Andrew Flintoff to post his eighth century at this level off 214 balls with eight fours.

Ponting, who by contrast was compiling his 38th Test hundred, followed him to the landmark with a single off the penultimate ball of the day, also from Flintoff, to bring up a century in 155 balls with eight fours.

During the course of his innings Ponting joined Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and former Australia captain Allan Border as the only batsmen to have made more than 11,000 Test runs.

A still largely docile pitch was as much of a stumbling block to England’s attack as it had been to their Australian counterparts and highlighted the lack of truly fearsome fast bowlers on either side.

The one exception was Flintoff, who produced a ferocious burst when introduced into the attack after lunch that saw him remove opener and Ashes debutant Phillip Hughes.

Flintoff immediately tested the 20-year-old left-hander from around the wicket in a bid to cramp the batsman for room.

The pace bowler then saw Katich, on 10, drive the ball low and hard back at him only for Flintoff, in his follow through, to drop the difficult caught and bowled chance.

Hughes, who favours the offside, had made 28 runs off 30 balls before lunch.

But it was a different story after the break with the 20-year-old only managing eight off 24 in the face of some fiery bowling from Flintoff, playing his first Test of the season following a knee injury.

Hughes was eventually out for 36 when he inside edged Flintoff, the hero of England’s 2005 Ashes series win, and wicket-keeper Matt Prior held a good, low diving catch.

But that was as good as it got for England in the session, even though Flintoff, who took one wicket for 15 runs in six overs, several times beat Katich on the outside edge.

Off-spinner Graeme Swann reeled off five consecutive maidens on a pitch taking turn but Australia’s second-wicket duo were rarely troubled by him or left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.

However, Swann was convinced he had Katich lbw for 56 with a ball that pitched in line and spun past the batsman’s defences.

But West Indian umpire Billy Doctrove was unmoved.

Ponting produced a chanceless display, driving and pulling in typically authoritative fashion as he scored his eighth Test century against England.

Swann had had more success earlier in the day with the bat.

Coming in at no. 9, he made 47 not out and, together with James Anderson (26), had shared in a valuable ninth-wicket stand of 68 in just 53 balls before lunch.

Swann struck rival off-spinner Nathan Hauritz for three fours in a row, the last a cheeky reverse sweep that took England past 400 after they’d resumed on 336 for seven with all of their specialist batsmen out.

But he was left just short of his second Test fifty when last man Panesar edged Hauritz to Ponting in the slips.

The 33-year-old suffered a miserable time during Australia’s 2-1 Ashes defeat against England four years ago.

Then a middle-order batsman, Katich scored only two half-centuries and averaged 27.56 in the series before losing his place in Australia’s line-up just two Tests.

He would never have expected a second crack at an Ashes trip after that painful experience, but proved to be the catalyst for Katich to reinvent himself as a highly-successful Test opener.

The left-hander took advantage of the opening created by Matthew Hayden’s retirement to enjoy an impressive run of form which has established him as a major threat to England’s Ashes hopes.

With Australia’s full Test squad training together for the first time on Thursday at Kent’s Beckenham ground as they build up to their 12-a-side match with Sussex starting at Hove on June 24, Katich can’t wait for the first Test to begin in Cardiff on July 8.

“Obviously last time (2005) was a disappointment, but at the same time it is a bonus to be back,” Katich said.

“If I had been asked three or four years ago I probably wouldn’t have thought I would make it back on another tour – it’s nice to have fought back and be here and I just want to enjoy it.”

In the last 15 successive Tests – including home and away series against South Africa – Katich has averaged 54.19 having scored five centuries and passed 50 a further seven times.

“The role is totally different to last time and I’ve enjoyed the challenge in the last 12 months of batting at the top of the order because that’s where I’ve played a lot of my first-class cricket,” he said.

“I know it’s going to be tough wherever you bat, but I do feel comfortable opening the batting.

“In general, opening the batting is obviously about laying a platform for the rest of the order.

“Particularly over here, getting through that new-ball period is going to be vital to set up some big scores for us. We understand that’s the extra responsibility that goes with opening.”

Playing alongside young opening partner Phil Hughes could be an added burden for Katich, but their success during the recent series win in South Africa suggests Australia may have found another pair to rival the success of Hayden and Justin Langer.

“I expect him to play a big part. He was outstanding for us out in South Africa,” Katich said.

“He has settled in beautifully to Test cricket because it was a tough challenge for him coming up against a very good South African attack in some tricky conditions and I think he handled himself beautifully.

“He proved in his month or so with Middlesex that he was able to adapt quickly. It’s a different level but at the same time it’s his first time in England and he’s gone out there and peeled off plenty of runs.

“He’s got that hunger, he’s got the desire and he’s got a great temperament and I’d expect him to have a good series.

“I just let him go and hopefully hang in there at the other end with him. We really enjoy batting together, we’ve done that a lot over the last two years with New South Wales and also now for Australia.

“We’re probably a little bit different in the way we stand at the crease but hopefully our styles compliment each other and we can play a big role in this series.”

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Australia were in a strong position at 303 for four at the close although South Africa fought back after a pummeling during the first three hours of play.

Hughes (115) and Katich (108) put on 184 for the first wicket, scoring at better than four runs an over, in a partnership dominated by Hughes, who thrashed 19 fours and two sixes in a 151-ball innings. Fellow left-hander Katich was more sedate in making his runs off 190 deliveries with 16 fours

Hughes, 20, reached his century with two successive sixes off left-arm spinner Paul Harris to become Australia’s youngest Test century maker since Doug Walters, who was eight days short of his 20th birthday when he made 155 against England in Brisbane in 1965/66.

South Africa claimed to have made plans to counter Hughes after his second innings 75 in the first Test last weekend – he made a duck in the first innings – but the little left-hander unleashed a dazzling array of strokes against some wayward bowling.

South Africa, seeking to draw level in the three-match series, started the match badly. They bowled poorly on a good batting pitch, dropped two catches and used up both their referrals to the television umpire.

The hosts made a comeback later in the day before Mike Hussey, who successfully challenged a leg before wicket decision against him, and Marcus North put on an unbeaten 37 before the close, surviving the second new ball late in the day.

Katich was dropped on 55 by Hashim Amla at midwicket off Dale Steyn, while Hughes was put down by a diving Jacques Kallis at slip off Morne Morkel when he had 114. He added only one more before slashing Kallis to gully where Neil McKenzie held a sharp chance.

South Africa wasted their first referral when Harris appealed for leg before wicket against Hughes when the batsman was on 81. Not only did television umpire Steve Bucknor uphold Asad Rauf’s decision but he awarded Hughes a run because the ball had gone off a bottom edge. Rauf had signaled a leg bye.

The South Africans seemed convinced Katich had been caught behind off an inside edge off Morkel when he had 63. It was the first use of ‘hot spot’ technology, designed to show where a ball made contact, but the picture was inconclusive and Bucknor upheld Billy Bowden’s not out decision.

Ironically the ‘snickometer’, which cannot be used in making decisions, later showed Katich had edged the ball.

To add insult to South Africa’s unsuccessful use of referrals, Hussey referred a decision by Rauf to give him out lbw to Morkel when he was on four. Replays showed the ball had pitched outside the leg stump and Hussey won a reprieve.