Cricket:South Africa are eyeing the first of three big performances in their 'quarter-final' against England, on the way to what they hope will be World Cup glory despite their five-wicket defeat against New Zealand at Queen's Park.
Graeme Smith's side always knew their Super Eight match against England in Barbados on Tuesday was win-or-bust and vice-captain Jacques Kallis says it is even more important now following defeat.
The Proteas suffered the worst of the conditions yesterday, put in under cloudy skies and battling to 193 for seven only for the Kiwis to coast home with 10 balls to spare as the sun shone on them.
Kallis reported the loss did little to change the equation South Africa were already working on.
"I think the game against England was always a must-win game for us," he said. "In a way, it is not a major thing losing this match.
"We would have liked to win obviously, but England is now basically a quarter-final for us."
Kallis's third-wicket partner Herschelle Gibbs made a determined half-century against New Zealand - but two more 50s from Stephen Fleming and Scott Styris settled matters to put the Kiwis through to the semi-finals, alongside Australia and Sri Lanka.
"Our fate is still in our hands. The next match was always a must-win - now it just becomes even more must-win," Kallis added. "England are a good one-day side. But so are we - and we back ourselves that we can come out on top."
He concedes that South Africa, the International Cricket Council's top-ranked one-day team, have not always performed to their best in this tournament, but insists their latest setback came through no fault of their own.
"It is frustrating when conditions play such a big role in a game," said Kallis. "The toss was vital, and the first 20 overs was like a green Test wicket - and that killed us up front."
"We have had one or two bad performances along the way, but this one you can write off to conditions," he said. "Losing to Bangladesh was a bad result and one we hope does not come back to bite us.
"But if we can put in three big performances now we could end up with the World Cup in our hands."
Kiwi captain Fleming will be an interested observer when South Africa and England do battle - and he is loath to commit to which team he expects to win.
"It will be tight, and I suppose it will come down to dealing with pressure in a quarter-final scenario," he said. "Probably the expectation is on South Africa to win it, because of their ranking - so England are in a situation where they could come from behind and have the least to lose.
"It will be a good contest."
As for New Zealand, Fleming's side are back on course and have renewed confidence ahead of Friday's top-of-the-table match against Australia in Grenada.
"We corrected our mistakes from the last game and really didn't put a foot wrong," said the captain, referring to his team's defeat against Sri Lanka two days beforehand. "We used the first 10 or 15 overs very well. The make-up of the team was spot-on, and the way we bowled was spot-on as well.