KOLKATA South Africa are in another World Cup semi-final. But that can’t be news anymore, not for a nation that has won only one in 10 knockout games in both formats and never reached the final. This side feels a bit different though, having won all their seven matches so far, some by the skin of their teeth. Not precociously talented, if you go by previous class-stamping, freakishly athletic South African teams. But most importantly, it doesn’t seem burdened by its past.

Marco Jansen is no Lance Klusener but the way he took charge of the chase against West Indies in the absence of a specialist batter, or how they beat Netherlands after being 12/4 at one stage, shows how far they have come along. Probably they have learnt well. You ought to when two of your colleagues are Quinton de Kock and David Miller, only survivors of South Africa’s sole success in World Cup knockout —beating Sri Lanka in the 2015 quarter-final. None of this will matter though if they fail to win a World Cup, which can’t even be called a pipedream now.

Which is why head coach Rob Walter made no bones about what was at stake for South Africa yet again, in another World Cup. “It’s never just another game,” he said. “I think that sort of rhetoric around semifinals is always untrue, or people trying to downplay the occasion. Certainly, we don’t do that. It is a semifinal of a World Cup, and we appreciate that and we’re looking forward to it.

“I think there’s always an energy that you can feel that’s tangible when it comes to a semi-final. There’ll be a mixture of emotions which is with anxiety but excitement and I think anyone in any sport, if they get to this phase of a competition, feels that. And so really, it’s just acknowledging that and accepting it and then just understanding what you’ll do with that. We still want to play our best cricket in the key moments of the game tomorrow.”

Afghanistan are in uncharted territory though. And they are expectedly not daunted by it. Their T20 specialists are hot property at IPL auctions, Rashid Khan is the best spinner in this format, and not too long ago Mohammad Nabi was ranked the best all-rounder. That they have thrice dismissed sides — including New Zealand — under 100 before defending 148 against Australia and 115 against Bangladesh is indicative of Afghanistan’s phenomenal bowling skills.

However, batting is a concern once openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran — they have put up four fifty-run stands so far — are dismissed. So expect South Africa to deploy Keshav Maharaj and wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi and exploit this weakness on a Tarouba pitch that might have variable bounce. Toss will become a factor since Afghanistan prefer defending and South Africa don’t have a glittering Cup record batting second.

No one knows that better than South Africa-born former England opener and current Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott. “We go into the semi-final with no scarring or no history with regards to semi-finals,” said Trott in a veiled dig at South Africa just after their win against Bangladesh. “This is uncharted territory for us. We’re just going to go out there and give it our all. There’s no preconceived ideas on it all, or history of failure or success in semi-finals in past years. For us it’s a new challenge, and I think that makes us dangerous in the semi-finals as a side with nothing to lose and obviously a lot of pressure on the opposition.”