- The Proteas' rampant form at the World Cup in India now suggests a shot at the elusive title isn't merely a pipe dream anymore.
- But Aiden Markram warns that South Africa shouldn't be focusing on permutations to reach semi-finals as such a mindset is "dangerous".
- Batting coach JP Duminy, intimately familiar with Proteas heartache at big tournaments, however, believes something special is brewing.
- For more sports news, go to the News24 Sport front page.
CHENNAI. - Most team runs. Leading team wicket-taking team. Four victories from five starts. Second position on the overall log. Highest net run rate.
It should be hard for some of the Proteas and their faithful supporters not to be imbued with a newfound belief that the 2023 World Cup campaign might be far more successful than was initially anticipated.
In fact, the years of heartache and underachievement - particularly a poor showing at 2019's edition in England - has even scarred enough of the local cricketing community for them to start examining the likely minimum permutations for reaching the play-offs.
The open nature of this year's tournament, which has been Afghanistan and the Netherlands claim big scalps, as well as the poor form of traditional heavyweights in England and Pakistan, in all likelihood means that five wins out of nine might actually be enough to squeak into the knockouts.
Maybe six victories, just to be safe.
That theoretically leaves one with three "opportunities" to come up short without ruining the aspiration to be in the last four.
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It's a cynical argument to make, but one also underpinned by the fact that the Proteas now enter the most difficult phase of their journey - showdowns with Pakistan, New Zealand and India.
And Aiden Markram, who once again deputised for Temba Bavuma in Tuesday's huge win over Bangladesh in Mumbai, believes it's plainly risky to set such minimum standards.
"I think that's a pretty dangerous place to be, to be honest," he said.
"I don't think you want to start trying to do math this far out. There are still four games of cricket and that's potentially eight points up for grabs. That's what we're going to try to push for. I think if you start sitting and hoping for a result from this team and trying to work out 'we maybe only need two wins left' or whatever it is, [you risk a lot].
"I don't think that's a great place to be as a unit, so I'm sure we'll stay far away from that and focus on the very next game and try to back up performances that we've put in so far."
Some of South Africa's cricket has indeed been mesmerising, especially their batting, which averages totals of 345 to date and has adopted seven per over as their standard scoring rate.
More importantly, the substantial clarity with which this side goes about its business has batting coach JP Duminy believing something special is brewing.
After all, the former elegant left-hander was part of a generation of South African cricketers burdened by the ghosts of the past.
He's decently qualified to pick up on points of difference.
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"The fact that you're waking up and there are no butterflies in the stomach is pretty cool," Duminy said with a smile.
"The exciting part is, having experienced it myself, and understanding the anxiety that comes with a showpiece, the nervous energy you get from time-to-time, I can share in that experience.
"It's part of the journey. You shouldn't suppress it, you should embrace it. If you do that, you're creating the type of behaviours that help you make the positive decisions you're aiming for.
"That's the language we're instilling. There's been some great results."
By focusing in creating good habits instead of logs and other results, the Proteas also hope to eliminate the hackneyed "peaking" debate from the talks about them.
"I'm not too sure to be honest. Peaking is, suppose, a result of playing good cricket. And if we're going into each game trying to play good cricket, then we can see where it gets us," said Markram.
"But the things that we've been doing well, we've put a lot of emphasis on those things and their processes, for lack of a better word. I know that word is thrown around quite a bit, but that really is what it is.
"And like I've mentioned, for us as a batting unit, even as a bowling unit, we try to take really good options out there and make good decisions and if those options speak to the conditions, we feel like we'll be in the game.
"So, if we can do that for long periods of time and move forward each game then we hope it puts us in a good position."
The Proteas take on Pakistan here on Friday, with the first ball to be bowled at 14:00 (10:30 SA time).
