Pollock returns for curtain-raiser

Shaun Pollock has been recalled to the South African team for their Twenty20 international against Australia at the Wanderers on Friday, replacing the big-hitter Justin Kemp. Kemp has been rested due to an ongoing shoulder problem that will require surgery, probably at the end of the five-match one-day international series starting on Sunday.

After a poor display in the VB Series in Australia, where Sri Lanka pipped them to the finals, South Africa are taking the Twenty20 match seriously. Graeme Smith, the captain, left no cause for doubt when he said: "We'll be looking to implement a few of the strategies we've been working on ahead of the World Cup in 2007, because we've only got 20 to 25 one-day internationals before then.

"It's more of a mindset thing. Ten or 15 years ago teams were happy to be going at four runs an over, but after playing Twenty20 cricket we now know that you can score at 10 an over. You've just got to break the mental barriers.

"We have to be innovative because teams are going to need to play differently at the next World Cup, much like Sri Lanka did in 1996. Hopefully we can take the world by storm."

However, Smith said one of the ICC's innovations, the Supersub, left him cold. "If we're not going to be using [him] in the World Cup," he asked, "why must we keep playing him in the next five or six games?"

His Australian counterpart, Ricky Ponting, said he would also like the experiment, set to continue until March, to end as soon as possible. "Why wait as long as March?" Ponting asked. "It doesn't make sense. The sooner we get back to playing how we will be playing in the future, the better."

Ponting added his team would be going to greater lengths to crack the Twenty20 code as successfully as they have in the 50-over game. "We haven't yet got fully to grips with Twenty20 cricket and a few of the guys do still go into it quite lightheartedly," he said. "But it's a hard game to take too seriously because you basically have to come out and swing from the word go, and sometimes you'll come off and other times you won't.

"But South Africa have chosen a specialist Twenty20 team and if the ICC are going to have a Twenty20 world championship, then maybe we do need to look at it more seriously. We're still learning and hopefully we'll learn a bit more tomorrow."

One of the Australians' other goals tomorrow will be to neutralise a South African crowd which is expected to bombard them with plenty of caustic comments after the racial abuse their team endured Down Under. "We'll be trying to block the crowd out," he said, "but one of the things we've learnt on tours is that if the crowd keeps quiet it generally means we're playing pretty good cricket."

While the Australians have generally expressed delight at the hospitality they have been shown in South Africa, some of the players were terribly disappointed with their practice nets on Thursday. Batsmen had a torrid time as the ball leapt around in deranged fashion, and Ponting pointed a finger of blame at the South African camp.

"The practice facilities were great on Wednesday," said Ponting, "but they were not very good this morning. I spoke to the groundsman and apparently the South African team kept training yesterday in heavy rain and the staff didn't get a lot of the pitches covered in time. They were still very wet this morning, but at least we got a good session in yesterday."

South Africa were beaten by 95 runs by Australia in the Twenty20 international at the Gabba in January, but the Aussies have been weakened for the return clash by the absence of key batsmen Michael Hussey and Andrew Symonds. Hussey's wife gave birth to a baby boy on Thursday and he is flying over to South Africa on Friday, while Symonds will be resting a thigh strain.

South Africa Graeme Smith (capt), Loots Bosman, AB de Villiers (wk), Herschelle Gibbs, Neil McKenzie, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Robin Peterson, Roger Telemachus, Thandi Tshabalala, Johan van der Wath, Makhaya Ntini.

Australia Adam Gilchrist (wk), Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (capt), Damien Martyn, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brett Lee, Brad Hogg, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Mick Lewis.