``South Africa cannot be taken lightly,'' said Lankan coach Ranjit Fernando. So feels his South African counterpart, Bob Woolmer, about the Lankans.

The deciding factor could be the unavailability of the South African pace trio of Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusener due to injuries. The replacements for them would struggle to check the free-scoring Lankan batsmen.

Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu and Aravinda de Silva would be keen on showing their potential especially after the three combined to score just three runs in a sensational collapse in the side's opener against New Zealand.

Skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and stumper-batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana, however, made up for that with a sensible partnership and their form makes theLankan batting look very formidable.

The South Africans too warmed up with a brilliant win over England. Their batsmen too showed their liking for the slow pitches here and with all but one of the matches so far being high scoring ones, this one is bound to go the same way. More so if you take into account the relatively weak bowling attacks of both.