Can Smith's men halt the Australian storm?

ST LUCIA: South Africa will have to shed their burden of history and perform out of their skin to halt the unstoppable march of Australia as the two teams square off in an epic semifinal showdown of the cricket World Cup on Wednesday.

Emotions will run high as world's top two cricketing nation once again slug it out for a place in the finals.

South Africa had grabbed the number one ranking from the Australians last month, chased down 434 at the Wanderers last year and will be now on a mission impossible to stop Australia's winning run of 26 matches.

But history is against the Proteas. They have twice reached the semifinals of the World Cup before but were unlucky to lose on both occasions, rather dramatically.

In 1992, a flawed rain rule did a miracle for England and ruthlessly snatched a certain victory from the South African hands.

While chasing 252, a rain interruption turned the equation upside down for South Africa. Their gettable target of 22 from 13 balls was revised to 22 from one ball.

The 1999 tied semifinal against Steve Waugh's Australia at Edgbaston will still be fresh in the memories of at least four players, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs, who were part of that epic encounter, rated as one of the best one-dayers ever.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, South Africa needed nine runs in the last over with one wicket in hand, but Allan Donald's run out tied the match. Australia scraped their way to the finals on account of their another back-to-wall win against South Africa in the Super six. More PTI AS AR PM

Harsh words are exchanged and psychological warfare extended when the two sides meet and it's no exception this time around.

"The 1999 game was a game in history. It doesn't get mentioned much within the set-up," South African captain Graeme Smith said.

Australia's vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, however, would beg to differ.

"They will be even more determined given what seems to be a bit of a curse at cricket World Cup. I am not so sure if they are not haunted by previous failures."

Australia had the upper hand in six of their past 10 games against South Africa, including the pummeling they handed over to the Proteas in their Group match in the World Cup.

But it was not drubbing all the way in the encounter at St Kitts. South Africa, chasing a mammoth 377, were on their way to make a match of it.

A belligerent Smith (74) and AB d'villiers (92) gave South Africa a rollicking start but then lost their way in the middle.

Australia have reached the semi-finals without raising a sweat whereas Smith's men have just about made it to the last four, after losing matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand.

But Gilchrist believes the equation in semi-finals would be different.

"They've probably not quite dominated all the teams like many would have expected, but they have done enough to get to a World Cup semi-final and that's all you set out to do at the tournament," said Gilchrist.

South Africa is planning though to shield Shaun Pollock from the hammering he received at the hands of Matthew Hayden and Gilchrist in the St. Kitts game.

Pollock conceded 83 runs from his 10 overs while Hayden raced to the fastest century ever in the World Cup history in a mere 66 balls.

Proteas are now planning to give Pollock the new ball but remove him off the attack as soon as Hayden goes after him.

"We have a plan with Pollock. I suspect he will take the new ball, but if there's nothing happening, we will probably whip him off early and go for the pace of Andre Nel. It is something we learnt from the last game," Arthur said.

"When you get to the back end of these tournaments, you need your top players to have big games," Arthur said.

"The teams are going to be quite close so it's going to be a bit of stability and a match-winning performance from one of them that could be the difference."

"We do feel, though, that we are owed a bit of luck. We are hoping lady luck smiles on us," he said.

Smith, meanwhile, is confident that the sprained left knee he suffered after practice in St. Lucia would not stop him from leading the side in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

Smith has scored 441 runs so far in the tournament, including 74 against Australia in the group stages.

"It hasn't healed as quickly as I was hoping but I am pretty confident of playing on Wednesday," said Smith.