The Proteas are in action today at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India and they will be up against the two-time finalists, New Zealand, in Pune.

The Black Caps will want to return to winning ways following back-to-back defeats against India and Australia, which dented their chances of reaching the last four.

It will be important for New Zealand to win to keep their chances alive, while they want to continue their fine record against South Africa at the World Cup.

The Proteas do go into the match with a lot of confidence after five wins from six matches, and they want the victory to take momentum into the upcoming match against the hosts, India.

Rassie van der Dussen - Cricinfo

The Proteas top-order batter, Rassie van der Dussen, said they want to draw on the success of the Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks.

“We were all watching it at 2.30 in the morning,” said Van der Dussen.

“The final, actually the previous three games, we were all there in the team room watching. We take massive inspiration from them, massive learnings, and lessons from them as a team, how they go about what they do, what they stand for, the purpose they play for.

“I think Siya mentioned it in a press conference that if you're not from South Africa, you don't really understand what it means or what sporting achievements mean for the people at home and for us. So, we definitely take massive inspiration from that.”

The Proteas may have a secret weapon in their camp in the form of their head coach, Rob Walter, who coached in New Zealand for many years and knows their players like the back of his hand.

The Black Caps are by no means out of the World Cup, however, their 5-run defeat to Australia on the weekend in Dharamsala in the record-breaking game, would certainly have stung.

This especially considering that they came agonisingly close to chasing down the 388-runs posted by their rivals from across the Tasman.

Tom Latham - Cricinfo

The captain of the 2019 finalists, Tom Latham, said despite the nail-biting loss to Australia, they are confident that they can do the job today.

“Reflecting on what was an amazing game of cricket, obviously disappointing to come out on the wrong side of it.

“But I think if you look at the game as a whole, we did a lot of good things really well. We were obviously put under pressure, or a lot of pressure at the start, the way Australia came out to bat but I think the way we're able to pull ourselves back into the game and we obviously understood pretty quickly that it was a pretty decent surface and you know it's going to be a high par score.

“They probably got a little bit more than what we wanted towards the back end but I think we obviously put ourselves in a position towards the end of the game to win the game which is I guess what you want in these World Cup games is to put yourself in a position where you can win and when you're chasing something like 400, you kind of need everything to go well.

“From a batting point of view, I thought we did a fantastic job. We were one shot away from being on the other side. A lot of positives. We obviously reflected from a bowling point of view as well and hopefully we can put those learnings into practice tomorrow.”

Wednesday's massive game in Pune is scheduled to get underway at 10:30.

Mohammed Wasim - Cricinfo

Meanwhile, on Tuesday in Kolkata, Pakistan, gave their chances of reaching the semi-finals a boost with a convincing 7-wicket win against the Tigers of Bangladesh.

The win sees Pakistan move up to fifth on the table, but they will still need favours from other teams.

In turn the defeat spelt the end of Bangladesh’s chances of reaching the knockout rounds.