South Africa, big brother and road warriors

If Australia are always among cricket's achievers and Pakistan are regarded as its perennial entertainers, then South Africa are the game's road warriors. They are currently the most successful touring team on the Test circuit and rubbish the notion of home advantage when they step onto foreign fields.

Since readmission, they have played in 39 series (including one-off Tests) away from home, won 20, drawn nine and lost ten. In the last ten years they have become even better at winning away. In 18 series, they have won 10, drawn four and lost four. And in the last seven years, South Africa have been at their best when on the road. They have played 13 series on the road, won nine, drawn four and lost none.

They still have some distance to cover to catch up to West Indies streak of 18 series undefeated away from home but it still translates to this: when South Africa travel, they travel seriously. They are not put off by alien conditions or hostile crowds. It seems as though it would not make any difference if they were playing against Australia at the Gabba, England on the moon, or the Argentinean cricket team at the SSC; their approach would be exactly the same. It focuses intently on improvements they need to make in their game before taking opposition, occasion or location into account.

Although that approach is supposed to be uniformly applied to all places and against all teams, for a one-off match a Zimbabwe side that has not played a Test in almost a year, it sounds too serious. South Africa have admitted their usual vacuum of concentration feels a little different over here. "It is a little different. There is a different type of pressure," Hashim Amla said.

South Africa are expected not just to win but to win big and to win quickly, so the usual flames of expectation are dimmed. But they keep them flickering with talk of intensity levels and the importance of not letting their guard down. "You have to respect the game and respect your opposition and I think this team has done that very well over the last few years," Amla said. "I don't think we are going to treat it any differently this time."

Filing their Zimbabwean opposition in the same category as they do other people they play against will be second nature for South Africa but how they actually relate to them will be tricky. South Africa will continue to tread a fine line between father figure and fiery foe and they're being asked as much, about how they will fulfill the former role as the latter.

The close proximity of the two countries and the fact that Zimbabwean teams occasionally played in South African domestic competitions means people assume South African players will be willing to extend a hand to Zimbabwean cricketers, offer advice and give guidance. And they are. "If anybody walks up and talks to any of our players, they are willing to share their experiences and contribute as much as possible," Amla said. "The other day at practice we had a lot of the net bowlers coming to Dale and picking his brain. Not only in Zimbabwe but anywhere in the world. If any guys come through to seek some sort of sharing of knowledge, then we're definitely here to do that."

The net bowlers are mostly from Zimbabwe's academy squad. They are youngsters who have not had a full-time coach in months and their thirst for interaction with with high-profile players is high. Amla has even encouraged them not to feel intimidated by people like Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander and to engage with them as often as they like. "When I was a younger player, you felt hesitancy, but I think the personalities we have in our team are very approachable," he said. "You've got to take that step. If you never ask, you never learn."

But becoming mentors is not why South Africa are in Zimbabwe and Amla reminded both himself and others of that. "You know Zimbabweans are good cricketers. It's not just that we are here to help. We are anticipating it to be a good contest."

For the next five days South Africa will have to keep the competition and not the camaraderie at the forefront of their minds and Amla has indicated they are more ready to get back into road warrior mode. "A win is a win. Ideally you just want to win the game, but if it happens quickly then great. We don't want to go too much into the result of the game," he said. "It has been a salient feature of this team to concentrate on the stuff that we do well. We want to keep to that and not get caught up in other distractions."