Friendships on hold as stakes enter a different league

Some things just don't seem to fit together: spots and stripes; socks and sandals; Dale Steyn and Virat Kohli. The South African is a safari-loving, street-art appreciating, soft-drink guzzling wild-child, the Indian a smooth-talking, suave-dressing, superstar but they do have more in common than just their tattoos.

"I've shared a great friendship with a lot of South African players over the years, and Dale has to be one of the more special ones. I played with him in Royal Challengers Bangalore for three years, and we became such good friends that we've carried on our friendship after that as well and whenever I meet him he gives me the biggest hug," Kohli said. "Even if we have to play a game, we are always really friendly before that."

If Steyn ran into Kohli in the maze of Melbourne laneways over the past week, he would not have stared him down with his scary eyes but shared a joke. Kohli would have counterattacked with a gag of his own. The same would have happened if any of the Indian team ran into Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock, who have all played in the IPL, and even Kyle Abbott, a new signee of the Chennai Super Kings, who donned his yellow shirt for the first time a few days ago for a photo opportunity. They will be team-mates in six weeks' time, when the new IPL season starts, but will put that on hold come 14:30 on Sunday.

"He's a completely different person on the field, which is absolutely fine," Kohli said of Steyn. "He's very aggressive. He's obviously very passionate about playing for South Africa. There's a good reason why he's the best bowler in the world for a while now, and he's so consistent because he has that mentality. We know on the field that, come game time, I'll be looking to dominate him and he'll be looking to dominate me, which is a mutual respect kind of thing."

So far, Kohli has had the better of their meetings. In the 11 ODIs when they have played against each other, Steyn has dismissed Kohli twice - whereas he has accounted for Brad Haddin and Mohammad Hafeez five times each - and both times were after Kohli had already scored fifty.

Kohli may choose to remind Steyn of that, but has asked him not to take it too personally. "Whatever is said and done at that point of time, it's taken in sportsman's spirit because we know after the game we'll obviously be best buddies again," Kohli said.

For his part, Steyn would have a handy retort. South Africa have won all three of their World Cup encounters against India and have promised no let-up at their fourth meeting, no matter how much they enjoy each other's company. "Friendships are not going to play a role tomorrow," AB de Villiers, another of Kohli's IPL team-mates, said. "It's a World Cup. You're playing for your country. Both nations are very proud cricketing nations, so it's a matter of really putting it out there on the field and leaving everything out there on the field in order for you to win the game."

Although victory in the match will neither guarantee nor seriously jeopardise either team's chances of reaching the quarterfinals, it is seen as the biggest game both will play before the knockouts, and hence a chance to gain confidence early on. "Maybe its make or break for us, maybe not, all I know is we want to win this game," de Villiers said.

For South Africa, success will only add to what de Villiers is hoping will be the best cricketing memories of their careers. "The tournament is quite long, but it's also important for me to slow things down, and to make sure we enjoy every single moment away from the game and while we're playing. I see it as just a journey in life almost for the team. If we come out on top here, I don't want it to feel like a blur looking back," he said. "It must be a really good two months. If you rush things and you play games every second day, you almost just like the IPL sometimes, it's a long tournament, but you look back and you think, where did those two months go to?"

Some of that time went into forming friendships like Steyn and Kohli's, which may last a lot longer than a lifetime of IPLs and World Cups, but which was tested by both. Just ask Jacques Kallis, who retired before he had the chance for a final World Cup hurrah, but won trophies with the Kolkata Knight Riders and is now their mentor. May the best friend win.