Ahead of their crunch semifinal tie against New Zealand on Tuesday, South Africa's middle-order batsman David Miller believes that their current young and fresh squad doesn't have a lot of baggage behind them as they haven't played in previous versions of the World Cup.
Miller believes that there won't be any bad memories from South Africa's last ugly World Cup clash with New Zealand as they prepare for an intense rematch in Auckland on Tuesday.
AB de Villiers' men would be looking to erase South Africa's poor record at cricket's showpiece event where they have regularly failed to live up to their expectations, with the last World Cup being another classic case as they were tipped out of the 2011 tournament by New Zealand in an ill-tempered quarterfinal in Dhakar, Stuff.co.nz reported.
New Zealand's Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori and South African star Faf du Plessis were all fined over an emotional confrontation after De Villiers was run out in South Africa's failed run chase as they melted under pressure, losing by 49 runs as they sought just 222 for victory.
Miller wasn't in the mix that day and declared it irrelevant for Tuesday's semifinal at Eden Park. He said that he believes this team there are a lot of fresh guys in the side, young guys as well who haven't been to World Cups before so he thinks that they don't have a lot of baggage behind them.
Miller claimed that they are feeling pretty fresh, playing good cricket and insisted that the guys are coming right at the right time. He said that he is really excited for Tuesday's game.
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Miller said that he believes that South Africa has got a game plan over the last year and a half, two years and added that it's just about sticking to things and everyone coming through at the right times when the team needs them to do that.
The batsman admitted that South Africa's loss to Pakistan at Eden Park in pool play obviously wasn't a great result but insisted that the consistency they have had as a team for the last year and a half, two years has been phenomenal.