Rassie van der Dussen reveals the biggest secret of South Africa's victory

It was not good for South Africa to bat in the second innings compared to batting in the first. Barring a one-wicket win over Pakistan, South Africa had lost in chases against the Netherlands and India. But, South Africa successfully chased down 245 against Afghanistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday and won by five wickets in their last league match before the semi-finals. The successful chase was led by Rassie Van der Dussen, who scored an unbeaten 76 off 95 balls.

Rassie van der Dussen says that coming into this match, we wanted to put ourselves in that position. So even if we had won the toss, we would have bowled. Knowing that he has a particularly strong spin attack. I think it was controlled to a great extent. There were one or two nervous moments, but that always happens in chasing.

He said that one thing we have done well is that we never lost wickets in clusters. Whoever came had a little partnership and almost finished it. They were never actually in the match. Even though it looked like we needed about 50-50, with five wickets in hand you're going to get there nine times out of ten.

South Africa's next challenge at the World Cup will be against five-time champions Australia in the second semi-final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday. The Proteas had won the previous encounter against Australia in the league stage in Lucknow by 134 runs. But, South Africa last appeared in the World Cup semi-finals in 2015 and most of the players did not have much experience of playing knockout matches.

Van der Dussen acknowledged that Australia knows the feeling of playing knockout cricket more, but backed his team to continue their winning mentality.