Cricket World Cup 2015: Can De Villiers get the Proteas to the finals?

This is South Africa’s seventh World Cup in their 23-year old Cup history. Only once out of six previous occasions have they won a World Cup knockout game. This record cries out loud of the Proteas’ inability to withstand pressure of avoiding elimination - particularly when you consider that four out of five such must-win matches were lost chasing totals. In 1992, the Proteas were plain unlucky. Five years later, a brain-freeze at the non strikers’ from one of their best, Allan Donald ended their dream.

In what is a glimmer of hope, the only occasion when they have won a knockout match was last week’s quarter final against Sri Lanka.

2015 offers hope.

Before each game, Captain’s corner becomes important as they look to overcome their past emotional baggage. While AB De Villiers wasn’t the skipper back in 2011, he was part of the Graeme Smith-led team that experienced the pain of failing to chase as few as 222 runs in the 2011 quarter final against New Zealand. There are many others in the present squad who don’t know what it is to lose a knock out game. Or do they? Much the same way as a proud debutant knows everything about what it is to carry the legacy forward on receiving his country cap, exorcising the ghosts of history take a beating once you enter the team environment.

Being in a South African World Cup squad involves embracing the challenge of having to overcome past failures. A helpless Brian McMillan of 1992, a resigned Lance Klusner of 1999 to a distraught Graeme Smith of 2011 - these are images that every South African has lived with and erasing them is a primary step for De Villiers' team in their aim for glory.

“No body is going to stop us if we play to potential,” the skipper said before the semi-final. It may be one of those occasions when he wasn’t addressing the media alone, and wanting the word to spread within the dressing room. It can be counter-productive if some of the players take it too seriously and crumble when things start going wrong. "We will stick to the process" would have been a safer approach to take, but De Villiers, one of the best in the world with the bat, perhaps wants to throw himself and his team a challenge: that past does not matter.

Not just the distant past, even the fact that they capitulated against India and Pakistan in World Cup 2015. The Proteas are only two steps away from the trophy and De Villiers wants to reinforce to his team that "playing to potential" alone can get them to the unknown – their first ever World Cup final.

Can he walk the talk?