Stand-in New Zealand skipper Tom Latham on Tuesday called on his bowlers to be proactive against a strong South African batting line-up when the two teams meet on Wednesday.

"I think it's just recognising situations as best you can and trying to be proactive as much as we can as well from a bowling point of view and I guess from a field placement point of view as well," he said.

South Africa have posted three of the six highest scores in this edition of the ODI World Cup. "Wickets are really important. That's the way to stem the run rate as best you can by taking wickets and that's not just at the top, that's through the middle as well. We've seen South Africa, they're running really hot at the moment. And they've got a lot of power throughout the whole line-up. I guess it's just trying to understand the match-ups as best you can."

With inputs from PTI