South Africa take on Zimbabwe in the second MTN one-day international at Supersport Park in Centurion on Tuesday, after a less than convincing victory in the first ODI in Benoni on Sunday.

Coach Mickey Arthur said on Monday that he was reasonably pleased with the team's performance in the first match, but was looking for a better performance in the second.

"We got rid of some of the cobwebs, the batsmen looked very good, and the bowlers ran in hard," he said.

Arthur conceded that there had been some problems at the tail-end of Sunday's match, when Tatenda Taibu and Stuart Matsikenyeri put together a partnership of 188 at nearly a run a ball. Zimbabwe made 146 for one in the last 21 overs of the match, out of a total of 250 for six.

"I think we lost a bit of focus after the rain delay," said Arthur. "The match was dead and buried when the rain came down, and so it was hard to get the guys going again. It always is a little concerning when this happens towards the back of an innings, and it is something that we have talked about.

"But on the other hand, I think the skills levels of the batters have got better. You didn't see batters sweeping yorkers a couple of years ago -now just about every batsman has that in his armoury, so it means you change your deliveries a bit and vary things. We're aware of that and we're working on it."

He said it was important for the team to come under pressure ahead of the series against England, which begins on Friday.

"One good thing that came out of yesterday's match was that we were put under pressure at times.

"You can have practice games, you can have warm-up games, but if they're not counting towards something, if they're not going towards ODI records or something like that, you're never quite under pressure.

"Yesterday, we were put under pressure, not only by the opposition in those last 20 overs, but also by the fact that we were playing a bona fide ODI game and that's always good. So tomorrow, I want us to be more ruthless, a lot more clinical and I want to see us reacting to pressure in a very positive way."

Arthur said JP Duminy and Jacques Kallis would both play on Tuesday.

"Jacques won't be bowling tomorrow, he'll play exclusively as a batter.

We're going to hold back on his bowling for a while. JP's shin splints are just going to have to be monitored through the season and we're going to have to look after him.

"Wayne (Parnell, who has an ankle injury) is still a fair way away, and that is a little bit of a worry. Wayne is probably a week away, and he won't play this weekend.

"But as for the other guys, they came through fine. Graeme (Smith) came through superbly well, so it's only niggles. Wayne is the only real casualty at this stage."

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