Playing Symonds would be a gamble - Smith

Graeme Smith believes it would be a risky move for Australia to bring Andrew Symonds in to play South Africa on Saturday, despite his promising recovery from a biceps injury. Smith wondered if Australia were genuinely confident that Symonds could last 100 overs at full intensity.

Symonds has had solid batting and bowling practice this week and is set for a testing fielding session three days before the game. "It's one of those things," Smith told AAP. "We've got to plan that he [Symonds] is going to play.

"It will be interesting to see if they take the gamble on him in the game on Saturday, whether they know he's going to be able to get through his overs and field, that's going to be a risk for them. We'll plan accordingly that he does play and we'll take it from there."

Smith said South Africa, who like Australia hammered Scotland and The Netherlands, no longer feared the Australians. "We are running pretty solidly," he said. "I think both teams are very close. We've come a long way against Australia. I don't think there's that fear factor any more.

"It's about going out there and performing well. There's a lot of respect on both teams. It's going to be a cracking game and hopefully it lives up to what everybody wants to see. We are looking forward to it and I know they are."