Cape Town: The teams are 1-1 in the current five-match ODI series. However, the series results from the Test matches and Twenty20 meetings in Australia in December and January have been neatly reversed in the corresponding series on South African soil.
South Africa won the ODI series in Australia 4-1, and now Proteas captain Graeme Smith wants to get a win under his belt Thursday to prevent Ricky Ponting's side from inflicting a similar result on the hosts.
Ricky Ponting has called for greater consistency from his batsmen ahead of Thursday's crucial encounter in Cape Town. The hosts levelled the series 1-1 in Centurion on Sunday when the visiting top order collapsed, but Ponting has rejected the need for a player revamp.
Ponting fell for 8 in Sunday's seven-wicket loss as Australia were dismissed for 131 in the 41st over. Ponting will rested in ODI & Twenty20 series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Shaun Marsh and Andrew Symonds back in squad.
The winner of the five-game series will take the No. 1 one-day ranking.
Smith said his team just wanted to play the type of cricket that earned them a clinical victory against Australia in Pretoria on Sunday.
Parnell, in only his second One-dayer, won the man-of-the-match award on Sunday when his haul of 4-25 helped consign Australia to defeat.
Smith said it would be interesting to see if Australia kept the same combination for Thursday's game.
Match facts
Sunday April 05, 2009 (day/night)
Start time 14:30 local (12:30 GMT)