South African middle-order Rassie van der Dussen stated that their ICC World Cup 2023 semi-final against Australia would be different than their last meeting in the group stage where the Proteas handed a 134-run defeat to the Aussies.
The Proteas ended their robin-round campaign in the mega event with a five-wicket win against Afghanistan on Friday in Ahmedabad courtesy of Dussen’s unbeaten 76 runs.
Temba Bavuma’s men only lost two matches in the tournament with one of them being against the Netherlands, which was the biggest upset of this mega event, and against India.
Dussen, who has amassed 442 runs in the World Cup, stated that their semi-final against Australia would be very different as the Aussies have great experience of playing in such matches.
"I think it 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 four years ago," Van der Dussen said of his opponents.
"So, in terms of that, they'll probably know what it's about a bit more but it's on the day, it's what team rocks up, what team is switched on, what team executes their plans.”
The Proteas have played two World Cup semi-finals against the Aussies in 1999 and 2007. However, their defeat in 1999 was more cruel as they were knocked out of the mega event because of Australia’s higher group stage finish after the match ended in a tie.
"In '99, I was 10 so I don't remember too much, but they obviously had a really good chance to win the World Cup, I think we have a good chance as well," said Van der Dussen.
"In 2007 again I suppose on the day the team didn't execute like they wanted to and that's fine. It's going to happen like that. Someone's going to win and someone's going to lose.”
South Africa carries the tag of “chokers” in cricket as many times, despite having a team full of superstars, they failed to win the tournaments and are yet to win their maiden World Cup.
"The whole chat around our group was, you know what, on the 19th of November (final) we'll be where we need to be if it's lifting the trophy or not. Whatever will happen will happen, but we'll definitely go away from here with fond memories,” he concluded.