South Africa hopeful of Kallis return

Jacques Kallis's elbow injury has healed slowly. His possible return on Friday could be decisive © Getty Images

Jacques Kallis has passed a fitness test and could play in Friday's fourth one-dayer at Durban against Australia. Kallis's long-term elbow injury has kept him out of the current one-day series and with South Africa wanting only one win to seal the series, his return couldn't have come at a better time for the hosts.

"He's not feeling any pain so he might quite possibly play tomorrow or on Sunday," Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, said. AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs have both batted with impish enthusiasm in Kallis's absence. de Villiers is the second-highest run-scorer this series with 129 and has been electric in the field, while Gibbs's 66 in the second one-dayer at Cape Town helped propel South Africa to a match-winning 289 for 9.

If Kallis was to return for tomorrow's match, Smith hinted that his role might have to change: "It's something we will have to discuss with him," he said. "Hersch [Gibbs] and AB [de Villiers] have injected some real energy playing where they are, and we don't want to upset that. Jacques would also add another bowling option, as well as his batting."

Andre Nel could also play on Friday subject to passing a late fitness test on his foot. Nel was rested for the match at Port Elizabeth last Sunday, but Smith is clearly reticent in hurrying his fast bowler back too quickly, especially with the Test series starting in seven days. With 28 wickets in his last five Tests, his importance to Smith's attack cannot be underestimated.

"His foot flares up from time to time, and with the Test series just around the corner, we don't want to do anything to make his injury worse," Smith said. "His workload will increase in the Tests, so we are watching him carefully. He may be left out of the team for tomorrow's match."

Having started the series so confidently, South Africa lost the third match, but Smith insisted they weren't chokers. "That's just a whole lot of rubbish," he said. "We're not putting any pressure on ourselves - we have been playing some good cricket, and we want to go on playing good cricket. We started the series very well, with two wins, and even in Port Elizabeth, where we were in trouble, we came quite close to winning."

Australia will welcome back Andrew Symonds who has recovered from the thigh strain which prevented him from taking part in the first three matches. Symonds takes the place of Shane Watson while Mick Lewis will bolster the seam attack instead of Brad Hogg.

"It's great for someone like Andrew to be able to come back into the side," Ricky Ponting said. "He's a very important member of our team, he gives us more depth in all areas and it's a handy time in the series for him to be coming back."

South Africa (probable) Graeme Smith (capt), Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher (wk), Justin Kemp, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Robin Peterson, Makhaya Ntini

Australia Adam Gilchrist (wk), Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (capt), Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Mick Lewis.