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A confident South African side expect to have their front-line pace attack available for their cricket World Cup semi-final clash with New Zealand.
Right-armer Vernon Philander missed the quarter-final win over Sri Lanka as well as three of the six pool matches with a hamstring complaint.
But he is set to rejoin fellow seamers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel against the Black Caps in Auckland on Tuesday.
Skipper AB de Villiers says Philander is “ready to go”, giving the Proteas a fully fit squad to choose from.
De Villiers also has no concerns about the Proteas’ mindset ahead of the clash at Eden Park.
Having had to deal repeatedly with the “chokers” tag the team have carried from their past cup failures, he believes the trophy is as good as theirs if they play to their potential.
“I feel the team is in a really good space at a really good time and we’ve got a lot of reason to be confident for tomorrow’s game,” he said.
“I’ve mentioned before that I believe, if we play to our full potential, nobody is going to stop us in this tournament.”
De Villiers indicated he no longer had an issue with confronting the Proteas’ history in the tournament, where the furthest they have reached is the semi-final stage.
“I’ve gone through the whole package of feeling emotional about it, fighting against it, then accepting it, then fighting again,” he said.
“Honestly I’m not putting emphasis on that at this World Cup at all.
“I’m the guy who’s got to answer those questions, and I don’t mind doing that, but I know the squad is in a really good space.”
New Zealand have won the past three World Cup meetings between the sides.
In the last tournament in 2011, the Black Caps eliminated the Proteas in the quarter-finals with a 49-run victory in Dhaka.
De Villiers said his main memory of that match was “we lost”.
“It wasn’t a great game for us as a cricket team,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, I could walk off the field knowing I gave it my best shot. There’s no regrets about that game.”
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