Faisalabad, October 22:

South African coach Mickey Arthur said today the team was confident of bouncing back in the one-day series against Pakistan after losing the second match last week.

“Lifting the team after the loss is not difficult at all and it will not be an issue,” said Arthur ahead of the third match here on Tuesday. South Africa are level 1-1 with Pakistan in the five-match series after the Proteas won the first by 45 runs before Pakistan clinched the second by 25 runs.

“We have played really well through the tour, we had a little stutter at Lahore. We have set our team really high standards and need to maintain those standards,” said Arthur whose team won the Test series 1-0.

Arthur said he believed that the new-ball-change rule after 35 overs in each innings of a one-day match would increase the run-rate. “The scores in the last 10 overs especially in the subcontinent will be bigger because of the ball change,” said Arthur of the rule recently introduced by the ICC.

Pakistan will again be without Mohammad Asif, still suffering from a recurrence of an elbow injury which saw him miss the first two matches. The home team have included opener Khalid Latif in their 15-man squad and dropped Mohammad Hafeez.

Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik was confident his team would carry winning momentum into the third match. “We gave a good team spirit to win the second match and players are responsible enough to carry that momentum,” he said.