In South Africa's quest for the future, there's no room for heartbreaks of the past

To understand this fully, you have to revisit three scoreboards. The first, at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1992, which read "South Africa to win need 22 runs off 1 ball". Ridiculous - blame the mathematicians. Though South Africa's slow over rate had tipped the equation so firmly in England's favour.

The second, at Edgbaston in 1999, when just one run was required off the final four balls of the match with the unbeaten player of the tournament, Lance Klusener, on strike. More of that in a minute.

The third, at Kingsmead in Durban in 2003 - which, to be fair to the South African protagonists, was a tight Duckworth-Lewis job - showed one run required off one ball when the batters in the middle thought none were required of one ball. Mark Boucher safely blocked it, believing his straight bat had seen his team through to the knockout stage, only to find it had eliminated them from the tournament.

The first two of these were World Cup semi-finals, the third a decisive pool match. From these cock-ups has come the single word which haunts South African cricket: "chokers''. Add in a feeble response to Glenn McGrath across the first 40 minutes of the semi-final in St Lucia in 2007; a bizarre collapse against New Zealand in Mirpur in 2011, and the grim reality of the previously unimpeachable Dale Steyn's final over in the 2015 Auckland semi-final and the picture is clear: South Africa's cricketers find this stuff difficult.

Oh god, the Klusener one. History has had the temerity to call it the greatest ODI ever played, at least until the 2019 World Cup final, when a challenger emerged. Frankly, most South Africans would prefer that '99 semi consigned to the bin, not the books.

In the press box that day, or more precisely outside it, in the overflow seats among the vast and confused crowd, not even those of us who were supposed to know knew what had happened. Klusener - or Zulu as the lads called him - attempted an impossible run that left Allan Donald, his already stung partner from similar chaos the ball before, run-out by half the pitch. The scores finished level, two fine cricketers had lost their minds, and the disbelieving Australians had won the match courtesy a higher placed finish in the Super Sixes stage of the tournament.

This really won't do; the South Africans are better than such error-strewn calamity. It's time to get this thing sorted. Let's all meet at Sourav Ganguly's place in Kolkata on Thursday to watch the de Kocks and Markrams, the Rabadas and Maharajs sort it. They must. The joke, that tag… enough now.

If it wasn't Australia, I'd say "Yup, I'm in." But it's Australia and the tea leaves don't read well. Perhaps surprisingly, South Africa hold the advantage in ODI cricket, 55 wins to Australia's 50 in the matches played against one another. If you go by World Cup matches only, it's even.

Both sides would prefer to bat first, and especially at Eden Gardens, where the ball seems to hold more in the pitch the longer the match goes on. South Africa took a pounding there a week last Sunday when, batting first and while making his 49th ODI hundred, Virat Kohli guided his team well past the 300 mark, before the Indian bowlers went about the South Africans' batting with a sledgehammer.

These South Africans would prefer to bat first, full stop. There are two reasons for this. One, their record doing so this past year is incredibly good; two, their record not doing so isn't. From September 12 to November 1 this year, South Africa won seven of eight games against strong opposition by huge margins when batting first. The only blip in this otherwise flawless run came with a pusillanimous chase against Netherlands in Dharamsala. The same jitters were on show when they crept over the line to beat Pakistan by a single wicket in Chennai; in truth, they hardly leapt over that line against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad late last week.

It's a problem, but it shouldn't be. The same guys have chased brilliantly in the past, but the game gets to parts other games don't reach. It all happens so slowly, there is so much damn time to think, and the signs are unmistakable. The cameras zooming in on thin-lipped faces and narrowed eyes; the tension in the shoulders; the sudden and inexplicable inability to find or even see a gap in the field; the fun those fielders are having chipping and chirping away; the daft shots; the great catches; the ridiculous boundary saves; the increasing required run rate; the lack of strike; the maiden overs; those bloody cutters into the pitch; that DRS; the history, the reputation, the tag. Wherefore art thou my free spirit, my clear head, my resting heart rate, my steady hand, my quick feet, my 120/80 blood pressure.

Somehow, should the toss go against them, these players must find the head that bats first and apply it to batting second. Sounds simple, but it never is. It's like standing over a high-tariff golf shot and telling yourself you're on the practice ground. Make that swing, you say, the one that works like clockwork when there is nothing in the moment; the one where you barely watch the ball, you just swing. Be, just briefly, Glenn Maxwell. Let it flow and see it fly because you have nothing to lose. In short, hit it like it doesn't matter, because in the end, it doesn't damn well matter.

Except, it does.

Of course, winning the toss does not a winning performance make, but doing so vastly improves most of the players' mental health. Whatever the toss, you must play well to win and the trick will be to stay in the moment, not wander back in time and find the fear, or forward to meet the expectation. Play the ball and the situation; play everything before you and nothing else. Play the whole match, however hard. Take it to the tape if need be, but don't fall short of the tape. The deeper you go, the more the opponent feels your breath upon his neck.

South Africa has its complications. Sport has suffered from apartheid, affirmative action, and quotas. Rugby has coped well and after defending the World Cup title they won four years ago, the captain, Siya Kolisi, spoke of his team's ability to relate to the nation without prejudice.

"There is so much going wrong with our country. We are basically the last line of defence. There are so many people who come from where I come from, who are in homeless situations. There is so much division, but we show, as people with different backgrounds, that it is possible to work together not just on the rugby field but in life in general. Look at what the sport did in 1995 [when they first won the World Cup, in front of Nelson Mandela] and we can't go away from that. Without it, I wouldn't be here. There are people before me who fought for the opportunity for us to play in this team. I've got a job to make sure I give everything I can to the jersey to inspire the next generation."

And that's it for the cricketers, whose team has often been compromised by the political demands of selection, whose credibility at the highest level is challenged and whose ability to perform under pressure is often questioned. Eleven South African cricketers are two matches away from immortality. Now is their time. Relate to the nation, guys. Cricket is a situation game, play the situation. Inspire the next generation.

The talent is there, so much of it. Probably, the balance is light on allrounders but we've been saying that since Jacques Kallis hung up those size 10s about a decade ago now. In the last four matches between the sides - three in World Cup warm-up matches in South Africa and one in the event proper in Lucknow - South Africa have won by margins of 111, 164, 122 and 134. These are results to crow about, but it is not the South African way. Modestly, perhaps too modestly, they plough on.

The point, though, is this: the South Africans should walk out at Eden Gardens on Thursday with chests out and heads held high. There is nothing to fear; there is only opportunity. Forget the choker tag, it's an irrelevance. Most of these guys weren't born when Brian McMillan pushed Chris Lewis' apologetic dobber to midwicket and trotted the single that meant nothing. Sydney 1992 has nothing do with the South African cricketers of this day; neither has Edgbaston, Durban, St Lucia, Mirpur or Auckland. Forget it lads, not your problem. Your problem is 2023: go solve it by giving everything to that jersey and the inspiration of a nation that has seen its rugby players refuse to lie down. This is your time.