Coach backs Kallis and Gibbs to come good

Mickey Arthur, the South African coach, is confident that Jacques Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs, both of whom are struggling for form, will come through during the current one-day series with New Zealand.

Kallis, recently voted ICC Player of the Year, has found runs hard to come by in recent matches. In his last 10 one-day matches, he has scored 158 runs at 15.80 with more than half coming in a single innings of 87 against the West Indies earlier in the year. In the opening ODI against New Zealand at Bloemfontein, he was dismissed without scoring.

Gibbs, meanwhile, has been plagued by a combination of injury and poor form. In the first match against New Zealand, on a sluggish pitch, Gibbs crawled to 25 off 69 balls - a far cry from an ODI career strike-rate of over 80.

But Arthur insisted to Cape Times that both players would turn the corner sooner rather than later. "I thought Herschelle was coming right towards the end of his innings. All he really needs is time in the middle.

"As for Jacques, I feel he is just one innings away from a big score. I have noticed that he is a bit slow at the moment in getting into his trigger position. This is something we will sort out in the next couple of days.

"The frustrating thing is that Jacques looked as though he was just starting to get his form back on the final day of the Super Series Test in Sydney. He was, of course, not helped by the rushed nature of his trip back to South Africa from Australia. He hardly got his feet on the ground before the New Zealand series started. Generally, a team needs a little bit of fine tuning in a lot of areas."

As a result, Arthur has called for two practice sessions on Tuesday, when none were scheduled, and the second is due to take place under floodlights to get attuned to the conditions for the second match on Friday.

"We haven't played a one-day match under floodlights for some time, so it is something we need to get used to again."