Biff needs runs to save one-day spot

Graeme Smith could have just two more innings to save his one-day international career. The former captain has notched up scores of 6, 28 and 2 in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka and faces mounting pressure over his place in the starting XI.

With Alviro Petersen responding well to his call-up to the one-day side and Hashim Amla set to return from paternity leave in time for the series against New Zealand, Smith may face the axe soon. Since stepping down as captain in the limited-overs forms of the game, Smith has scored one half-century in six matches, but his barren run extends further back than that.

He has not scored an ODI hundred since a Champions Trophy match against England in September 2009 and had recorded one half-century in his last 16 matches.

"His confidence is not high at the moment but I really back Biff," AB de Villiers, current one-day captain, said after South Africa sealed the series against Sri Lanka in Bloemfontein.

"He's got enough experience to come back with a bang."

Smith has played 178 one-day internationals for South Africa since 2002, only 28 of them not as captain. Without the protection of the armband he now faces, for the first time in his career, the same vulnerability as the other players. De Villiers acknowledged that cricket mortality is a factor that will affect Smith going forward.

"We know he is under a little bit of pressure but that's part and parcel of the game. No one is indispensible. There's not one player, from Jacques Kallis to Hashim [Amla] to myself. Poor form is just around the corner for us all. It's a matter of getting through it. I believe that he [Smith] is one of those big match players; he will do it at the right time," De Villiers said.

Time is running out for Smith, with a clutch of fringe players pushing for the opening berth. Petersen is the likeliest to latch onto it but another contender is Knights' batsman Dean Elgar, who was named in the original squad to play Sri Lanka. Elgar had to withdraw before the series started after sustaining a knee injury in a Supersport Series match but expects to be back in action in the next two weeks.

Effectively, the next two matches of the already-decided series against Sri Lanka will be Smith's last chance. Sources close to the team said Smith is well aware that if he gets dropped in the near future, his one-day career could well be over. He has been putting in additional time in the nets and it needs to pay off on match day.

De Villiers said Smith has the know-how to motivate himself and that he has the backing of his captain and the rest of the squad.

"He is old enough and experienced enough to do it himself," De Villiers said. "Obviously we all back him. We've all been in poor form before and we know what it feels like."