Smith backs returning Petersen to fire

Very few people believe a problem can be solved through talking, rather than doing. Last week, Sri Lanka showed that sometimes it can. After their innings-and-81-runs humiliation in Centurion, it emerges that a team talk was one of the key factors that sparked Sri Lanka's exponentially superior determination and commitment in Durban.

Members of the Sri Lankan think tank had spoken - frankly, honestly and even harshly - about the reasons for their underperformance. They discussed areas that needed improvement, they tried to map out plans to ensure that improvement and they addressed other concerns, mostly mental ones, about playing in a foreign country. They also held two extra training sessions, gruelling as always, to get themselves ready for Durban. The result was a famous win, and now South Africa are trying to mirror the visiting team's methods.

South Africa's first step towards recovering from a loss that Graeme Smith termed "embarrassing", has been to address the concerns in the mind and the worries in the heart. "It's been a pretty tough time. We needed to overcome a few emotions. You go through the down time where you start reflecting and then you start picking yourself up as a team," Smith said. "We've had some really good chats about areas where we feel we've been poor."

South Africa held an extended three-and-a-half hour training session on Sunday but had to cancel their practice on Monday because of a nagging drizzle. The team spent the best part of two hours in their change room, chatting. The main topic of conversation was the mental shift that needs to be made when playing on wickets that are not tailor-made for the attack and are more like brown house snakes than green mambas.

The Durban pitch fit that category, since it provided a more even contest between bat and ball rather than overly favour of quicks. South Africa's batsmen fell apart, unable to adjust to slightly uneven bounce while their bowlers battled to make use of a pitch that did not assist them as much as they hoped. "We played on fairly juicy wickets throughout the season and then we got on one wicket that was a little different to that and we didn't adapt well enough," Smith admitted. "It's more of a mental shift. When we are thrown out of the loop with a wicket that is not like that [green] we need to make that mental shift quicker."

Although dotted with tinges of green, the Newlands pitch is likely to be another good cricket wicket and South Africa will have to be ready for a five-day duel, instead of a straight shoot-out. One of the players who could assist them in getting accustomed to the long haul is the recalled opener Alviro Petersen. Since being dropped, Petersen has scored three first-class hundreds, the most notable of them against the touring Australians on a spicy pitch.

The South Africans hope that Petersen's calm, no-frills demeanour will translate to results with the bat, in Smith's company at the top of the order. The two have a fairly solid record together. They have eight fifty-plus stands, including two century-partnerships, in the nine Test matches they have opened in together. Although Petersen has not progressed much after making a century on debut in India, he has shown immense development in the domestic game. Smith hoped they could resume their relationship successfully.

"Opening the batting, you both front up to a lot of things so you need to be there for each other and understand each other," he said. "We've got to know each other pretty well and we need to resurrect that pretty quickly. He is carrying some terrific form at the moment and hopefully we can gel that together."

When Petersen was dropped, he was thought to be a victim of another's prolific form, since Jacques Rudolph stunned the SuperSport Series with 954 runs in his comeback season. Now, there is a perceived sense of justice in Petersen's recall, after Rudolph's failure to push on from his domestic successes. Rudolph and Smith opened together in four matches, with only one half-century partnership and Rudolph managed a top score of just 44. Petersen's return means Rudolph will bat at No. 6 in Cape Town.

Another player whose frame of mind could be important for this Test is Imran Tahir. After debuting in a cloud of hype, Tahir has not lived up to his domestic form and was substantially less successful than Herath in Durban. He is expected to make a bigger impact at Newlands, and Smith said the team management had put a lot of work to help him make the step up to international cricket.

"It's more that he needs an understanding of how to be successful at Test cricket. It's not that he doesn't have the ability," Smith said. Paul Adams has spent a lot of time with him, talking about spin bowling so if he can have a mentor in that way to talk to about how to be successful, it will help. We'll give him as much as time as possible to develop and to grow."

While time may on Tahir's side, it is not on South Africa's. This Test will be their last opportunity this season to break their jinx at home - they haven't won their last four home series. Smith said he hopes all the talking will pay off. "We can play tougher cricket," Smith said. "We can make Sri Lanka earn a few more things than what they earned in Durban."