A nation dreams of glory

As every cricket-minded South African has known for months now, SA's World Cup campaign starts against Zimbabwe in Hamilton next Sunday.

But, as a former coach of the national team, Graham Ford is a big step removed from the rest of us - and he reckons you don't need to get out of bed at ridiculous hours for another five-and-a-half weeks.

"There's absolutely no problem; they'll cruise through the group stage," Ford said. "Qualification for the quarterfinals is almost automatic."

It is indeed difficult to imagine SA coming short against three-legged terriers like Zimbabwe, the fighting, but flaccid Irish, and the nonentities of the United Arab Emirates.

West Indies will give SA a mite more trouble, but only if they do not play like the West Undies they were on their tour to the country this summer. They won just three of 11 games and looked unhappy to be alive.

Pakistan are ominously bipolar, but SA have found ways to counter their craziness effectively more often than not.

India have the batsmen, but not the bowlers to scare SA. One-day cricket is a batsman's game to an embarrassing degree. However, it is still up to bowlers to win matches.

"The emphasis in the 50-over game these days is on the need to take wickets early on because if the opposition have a lot of wickets in hand going into those last 10 or 15 overs, you will be under an unbelievable amount of pressure," Ford said.

With Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir in SA's ranks, no team at the World Cup is better equipped to face that challenge.

At the other end of that equation, who would want to have to contain a batting order bristling with the varied threats posed by Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, David Miller and JP Duminy? Individually, they are wonderful players. Collectively, they should be a juggernaut.

All of which means SA could secure their quarterfinal berth halfway through their group matches. Or, at a stretch, four of the six. So, go back to sleep until the sharp end of the tournament looms into view.

The first quarterfinal will be played in Sydney on March 18. The semis are set for Eden Park and Sydney on March 24 and 26, with the final in Melbourne on March 29.

Not that South Africans will blink at 3am and 5.30am starts to watch their team in action, whatever the importance of the match. Too much hype has been created for that to happen, much of it by the marketing gone mad that accompanied the squad's announcement and farewell.

If Cricket SA's aim with all that jazz was to bring the players closer to the public who support them, they succeeded. But at Wednesday's departure jamboree in Johannesburg, enough of them spoke in overly emotive tones of their reception by the fans to know that it is crucial to SA's chances that the tournament is being staged in a faraway place where they are just another team, not everyone's champions-in-waiting.

In Australia and New Zealand, SA will be able to focus on the here and now of what they have worked so hard to accomplish.

"They've played a lot of good cricket recently and our conditions aren't far off what they're going to get over there," Ford said. "They're really well prepared and there's a lot of confidence in the camp, which is the most important thing.

"They've got an outstanding chance with the quality of batting they have, and they have a real strike bowling force."

It is not, of course, the round-robin stage that has been SA's problem at the World Cup. In fact, they have topped their group three times in their six visits to the tournament. What happens next is the hurdle SA have not cleared: played five knockout games, won none.

SA have always taken quality teams to the World Cup, and they have always come unstuck when it matters most. Why should this time be different?

"The more players you have who can win the game with a special performance, those are the teams most likely to come through," Ford said. "When you look at the superstars that SA have, you've got to think they have an excellent chance."

From Ford's lips to the cricket gods' ears, a nation will dream next to their primed alarm clocks.

sports@timesmedia.co.za

Best of the Best

These three powerhouses form the backbone of the Proteas side in their quest for world domination.

AB de Villiers: The shot-maker with the Midas touch

AB de Villiers wears his heart on his sleeve as well as the Proteas' captains' armband.

As shot-maker without equal and the elder statesman, it falls to De Villiers to set the standard on the field and the moral compass off it.

"I'm an emotional guy and I play with a lot of pride and passion," said De Villiers.

"I love our country. This is a very proud moment of my career. We are going to go there to bring that cup home.

"I think of all the hardship we've gone through as a country. I think of the 1995 World Cup uniting the country, the Afcon when we won it and the Rugby World Cup again in 2007. I would love to be part of a cricket group that unites the country once again... to get us even tighter than we've ever been."

De Villiers's bat will have to be as broad as his shoulders if he and the Proteas are to go the distance.

He has taken batting in the limited overs game to a different sphere.

Bowlers look at him as a touchstone, their SABS if you like.

De Villiers will be a marked man Down Under, but typically he's trying to stay a double-step ahead.

"I know the guys will have plans against me. You have to try and read the game. You can't just let him bowl at you. You have to take the initiative and put them under pressure.

"I watch every ball on TV when we bat. I try to assess the conditions and see where the game is going and get behind the flow of the game. That's how I play my cricket. I walk out there knowing what is required and how I want to play my innings."

De Villiers hopes that a heightened sense of awareness and confidence permeates his team. "Sport is 80%, 90% believing in yourself and having confidence. We have to go to the World Cup believing we are the best in the world.

"No team has won the World Cup not thinking they are the best. You have to believe you are the best and I think we are close to that."

Hashim Amla: The Silent Warrior primed for big battles ahead

He's ranked the second-best batsman in the world behind AB de Villiers, but he goes into the World Cup with a career batting average of 56.41 - the highest of any batsman in the tournament.

Amla is also the fastest of all time to reach 5000 runs in the one-day format, having surpassed a squadron of legends - many of them World Cup winners - from Viv Richards to Michael Bevan.

There is nobody on the planet who can match Amla in consistency at the crease.

In 107 matches he has scored 19 centuries and 27 half-tons, which means he has passed the 50 mark nearly 43% of the time. Four of his hundreds have come in his last 11 knocks at an incredible average of 77.77.

He has been dismissed for only two ducks in his career and has scored fewer than 10 runs on 14 other occasions; that's a failure rate of 15%.

This bodes well when you consider that three of the last five World Cup winners were spearheaded by dominant openers - Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka in 1996, Australia's deadly duo of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist in 2007, and Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag of India four years ago.

Amla will have to be at his best, because if you break down his batting statistics in Australia and at World Cups he starts looking vaguely human.

Down Under he has scored one century in 10 ODIs, with an average of 39.44. His World Cup average - based entirely on the 2011 tournament - is 43.71.

With the Proteas batting first he has an average of 63.36 with 15 hundreds, but when the team bats second it dips to 45.97 with four centuries.

Batting first with Amla in the lineup, the Proteas have won 42 matches and lost 16. Batting second the team has won 26 and lost 18. The bottom line is that Amla has been on the winning side more often than not.

Dale Steyn: A fast, furious and frightening speed merchant

Dale Steyn spent the last two weeks before the Proteas flew out to New Zealand on Wednesday for the start of the Cricket World Cup admiring the wildlife at the Kruger National Park.

Like the leopards that fascinated him, Steyn is the stealth and muscle of the South African team and the spearhead of the bowling Big Four that includes Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir.

He was given time off to make sure his canines remained well sharpened for a career-defining tournament that - if the Proteas claim the trophy, as many hope they will - will add gloss to already stellar profiles of himself, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla.

At 31, Steyn is probably going to his last World Cup as South Africa's most trusted frontline fast bowler. He has done it for South Africa on many occasions, and his 151 wickets from 96 one-day internationals, averaging 25.14, says as much.

But as the tournament in Australia and New Zealand is expected to be a batsman's festival, Steyn's role will be to play the stopper and wicket-snatcher, especially when partnerships need to be broken, in a competition expected to be a run feast.

He's the anti-Chris Gayle, the antidote preventing the game from degenerating into baseball.

In 2011 Steyn took two wickets to help restrict New Zealand to 221 all out in the forgettable quarterfinal in Dhaka. It wasn't enough as the Proteas batsmen crashed, falling 49 runs short of the meagre total.

The last year showed signs that Steyn is on the path to put that right. He has only failed to take a wicket once in his last 14 ODIs and needed to play just three matches to help the Proteas to a series win (4-1) over the West Indies.

South Africa's tattooed superstar was included in West Indian great Viv Richards's 11 players to watch at the World Cup. Richards was impressed by Steyn's consistency, aggression and ability to produce top performances when the occasion demands them.