Australia are no stranger to knockout matches but South Africa, who will meet the five-time champions in the second semi-final at Eden Gardens next week, intend to continue with their "must-win" mindset to get over the line.
The Proteas beat Australia by 134 runs, once this World Cup, in Lucknow but they last appeared in World Cup semi-finals in 2015 and the new group of players have little experience playing in the knockout stages.
Australia, winner of five men's ODI titles, won the 2015 World Cup as well as the T20 World Cup in 2021.
Rassie van der Dussen, who scored an unbeaten 76 against Afghanistan on Friday, rightly said Australia have a "good reference" of how to win knockouts.
"I think it (the semi-final) will probably be different in the sense that a lot of their guys have been in those situations before and have a good reference of how it is having won the World Cup and having played in the semi-final two (four) years ago," Van der Dussen said at the post-match press conference on Friday.
"So, in terms of that, they'll probably know what it's about a bit more I suppose, but it's on the day, it's what team rocks up, what team is switched on, what team executes their plans."
The 34-year-old, who has scored two centuries and as many fifties in this edition, said the Proteas will go on with their "must-win" mindset.
"We came into this tournament knowing that if we get a chance to win, we need to win because we've missed out on semi-final spots by very small margins."
"From the start it's been almost like a must-win type of mindset for us. So, I don't think too much will be different. I think it will be a good game. They're a great team."
As their chasing troubles have been well documented in the tournament — both games the Proteas have lost till now, against the Netherlands and India, have been while chasing — Van der Dussen said the team wanted to test themselves before the semi-final. They broke that jinx on Friday, against Afghanistan, notching up a five-wicket win.
"The win-loss ratio looks pretty good in our favour when we bat first and I think it's pretty much 50-50 when we chase," he added. "Coming into this match we wanted to put ourselves in that situation (before the semi-final). It was not easy as Afghanistan had a quality bowling line-up."
