Follow UsAustralia and South Africa have been involved in classic World Cup semi-final clashes in the past - none more epic than the tied game in 1999 at Edgbaston. However, South Africa seem to have an upper hand in the tournament, having defeated Australia in the group stages.
Since that loss, though, Australia have won seven on the bounce and qualified for the semi-final.
Looking ahead of the clash on Thursday (November 16) at the Eden Gardens, Australia skipper Pat Cummins acknowledged that it was nice to have many in the dressing room play in such big clashes in earlier editions and emerge on top.
"We feel lucky that we've been in these situations quite a bit, a lot of our players. So, you know what it takes, but also, you're not really weighed down by history. You get more excited about the challenge and just get stuck into what needs to be done," Cummins said ahead of the semi-final clash.
Speaking of the way his side could approach the game, Cummins said, "I think there's a couple of different ways you can go about it. You can either build it up as the most important game of your life, or you can do business as usual, really.
"And I think with experience, I think just keeping it pretty chilled and business as usual for our group seems to be the way to go. So, you draw back on those past wins, but you also just draw back on the last few weeks and know that us at our best is good enough. So, you don't need to try and push it too hard. But I think there's a quiet confidence, and I think our team plays our best when we've got that."
Cummins reckons that the pitch might have a bit of turn. In that case, will there be any tweaks in the combination? The Australia skipper kept his cards close to his chest.
"With the all-rounders, someone like a – say Stoin (Marcus Stoinis) at number seven, that's giving you valuable overs, but then also is a really aggressive finisher to the innings, so you're weighing that up against, you know, maybe a middle-order batter if you think the bowling might not come into it as much and maybe the runs are to be had through the middle overs rather than blasting out at the end," Cummins said.
"So, they're things we've got to weigh up. I don't think there's a wrong or right answer. We've got a class squad of people here that feel like we can step in at any time, so yeah, we'll work through that."
Cummins also gave an update on Glenn Maxwell's availability, saying that he is good to go for the South Africa clash. He also confirmed that the all-rounder had a precautionary scan.
"Maxi’s all clear, he's all good. Yeah, just precautionary, so still a little bit sore yesterday and yeah, we get scans a lot of the time just to make sure that if there is something there, we know what we're dealing with. And fortunately, he came back all sweet, so he's fine," Cummins said.