Both teams will hope to banish some unwanted baggage from the global showpiece that has dogged them for years.
The Proteas have long worn the tag of cricket’s ultimate chokers for repeated failures in the tournament’s knock-out rounds.
Their breakthrough quarter-final win over Sri Lanka, a first win in a knock-out match at the World Cup, will quickly be forgotten if defeated in Auckland.
Like their opponents, New Zealand have never been further than the penultimate hurdle and want to prove themselves heavyweights, rather than merely the team that punches above its weight.The game will be New Zealand’s seventh appearance in the semi-finals at the World Cup, and third in succession, while it is South Africa’s fourth since their re-integration into global sporting competition following the end of the apartheid era.