Choke on it, doubters; SA has the eye of the tiger

For once, they were the headlights and not the rabbits. For once, they were bigger than the occasion. For once, what the other team did mattered not a jot.

The wonderful thing for the Proteas is that they have finally won a World Cup knockout match. And in style. And, yes it's true, they are in the semifinals.

And who does JP Duminy think he is taking a hat-trick? A hat-trick! In a World Cup quarterfinal! And has Imran Tahir stopped running yet after claiming four of the seven wickets he shared with Duminy?

Since when does a side like the Proteas undo subcontinental opposition with spin?

And welcome back Quinton de Kock and your gutsy, power-driven, fearless 78 not out. Where the hell have you been?

South Africa's performance was as close to the perfect cricket match a team could play. It was less a performance than it was a wonder, something we will hold up to the light of our memories forever, like a child gazing on a favourite marble. How it shines.

Not that it started that way. When Angelo Mathews called correctly, a groan went up before TV sets all over South Africa: our team would have to get the job done the hard way. But the way was never hard. The Sri Lankans collapsed to 133 all out - the lowest total in a completed innings in the tournament by a Test nation who are not England.

Who knows how much the spectator who dashed onto the ground and dropped his shorts distracted Sri Lanka's star batsman Kumar Sangakarra from raking the personal Zen garden he'd made of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

He suddenly slashed at a ball and was out. With him went the last Lankan hope.

By then, though, Duminy had removed the middle order and that hope was already faint.

As South Africa crushed the last resistance it had only just got properly dark in a day-night game that almost never was but forever will be.

Now they turn attention to Auckland and New Zealand or West Indies. But, for now, they should enjoy what they have earned. Bloody well done.