Durban (South Africa), Apr. 2 : Proteas coach Mickey Arthur has described South Africa's first one-day-international (ODI) against Australia on Friday as "huge", and believes that it serve as a key indicator as to which way the series will go.

"Friday is when we want to put our marker in the sand and that is why we have been building up extremely hard this week. For us, Friday is huge because you want to go one-nil up and hopefully take momentum from that game," Sports24. com quoted Arthur as telling a news conference on Wednesday.

South Africa won the recently completed Pro20 series against Australia two-nil but Arthur feels that that series triumph is a thing of the past and will have little or no bearing on the upcoming ODI series.

South Africa beat Australia four-one in their away ODI series in January and the home side's chances of repeating that feat has been boosted by the return of their inspirational captain Graeme Smith, who has recovered from a broken right hand.

While Smith's return is good news for the South African camp, the injury cloud hanging over allrounder Jacques Kallis tempers it.

Kallis is struggling with a groin strain and a decision on his availability for the match will only be taken after a vigorous workout on Wednesday.

spinner Roelof van der Merwe has every chance of making his ODI debut for his country after being named man of the match in his first Pro20 match for South Africa last Sunday.

Arthur also likes the idea of having a few spinners in his team. (ANI)