New Zealand v South Africa Preview, Semi-final 1, Auckland

De Villiers’s South Africa has looked anything but brooders, or the kind to look wistfully at the past. There has been a hard edge to this team, a focus on simply getting the job done, not overcomplicating the game or theorising endlessly about it. From batsmen to bowlers to coaching staff, the message that has come out of the South Africa camp has been a simple one: go out there and get the job done, this is what we have been preparing for, for all our lives.

Whichever team wins on Tuesday – the chance of rain interrupting play at some stage being the only dampener – it will do so against the weight of history. Neither of these teams have ever been in a ICC Cricket World Cup final. Nothing like the present, then, to create a bit of history.

Teams: (likely) New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum (capt), Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi (wk), Daniel Vettori, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan/Matt Henry.

South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw, AB de Villiers (capt), David Miller, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Kyle Abbott/Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir.