Unscarred South Africa own their errors to shed historical baggage

South Africa insist they are not bothered with the past and this time, they sound believable.

As narratives around their victory over Australia last Thursday wound back to 1999 and Herschelle Gibbs' dropped catch and found poetic justice in the fact that Australia, on their way to a second-straight defeat at this year's tournament, had missed six chances, South Africa barely seemed to notice the parallels. Who can blame them? All of the current squad were only children back then, with only Rassie van der Dussen's age in double digits, and Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee had not even been born.

Unlike someone like Dale Steyn, who was 16 at the time, they won't remember crying in front of the television. So it's understandable that beating Australia did not come as a big surprise to a group of players who have been part of 15 wins in their previous 20 matches over Australia, including a series win in preparation for this tournament. Lucknow was a continuation, not a balm. This generation does not have those kinds of scars.

But that doesn't mean they have none. Less than a year ago, ten members from the same squad who are at this World Cup were in the T20 group that were knocked out of the tournament by Netherlands: a team they had never lost to before and will face again on Tuesday.

You'd think there has to be some historical pressure to ensure they don't slip up against an Associate outfit whose touring party includes seven of their countrymen, right? Wrong.

"The last time we played Netherlands was back home in South Africa and we needed those points to qualify for the World Cup. The performances that we showed were critical. Our victories there were emphatic, in my view. In terms of the confidence and belief within the team, without us being arrogant or loud about it, I think it's still up there," Temba Bavuma, South Africa's captain said in Dharamsala.

In March this year, South Africa had to beat the Dutch in their last fixtures of the World Cup Super League, where thanks to a combination of their own mistakes and their board's, they found themselves outside the automatic qualification zone. On-field, they had lost series to Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh and they weren't able to get on the field against Australia after CSA opted to forfeit the series to launch the SA20. After beating England 2-1 in January, the two matches against the Dutch were must-win. So, if there were any ghosts from the T20 World Cup, they would have come back to haunt South Africa then.

That they didn't is partly a sign of the exorcism South Africa have been able to do and partly a change in format.

"It's a different format, a different ask in terms of your skills, and being able to do your skills for a longer period of time. That's something that I think we all need to appreciate," Bavuma said.

It speaks to the idea that the shorter the format the closer the match-ups could be, and Netherlands see ODI cricket as a version that allows them to show their patience game.

"We don't get to play any Test cricket or anything like that, but we play a lot of fifty-over cricket, and we understand the consistency that needs to come with playing good 50-over cricket for long periods of time," Ryan Cook, the Dutch coach of South African origins said.

Unfortunately for the Dutch, the top-tier teams, led by England, have moved beyond seeing ODIs as a condensed form of Tests and adopted a far more aggressive approach to their batting. South Africa are among them and have promised to continue taking calculated risks with their powerhouse top six.

Bavuma called it being "opportunistic as batters," who are "looking to take the game on". But he'll know that even the pioneers of that approach - England - have recently been forced into a more tentative game plan and were beaten by Afghanistan, so anything is possible even though South Africa are determined not to be led down a memory lane of failure.

"The past is the past. The only thing you can do is learn from it," South Africa's white-ball coach Rob Walter said. "If we carry that burden, it uses up energy. [We know] if you don't rock up on the day, you could find yourself under pressure. We don't disrespect any opposition by viewing them as weaker opponents. We have very little focus on what's happened and more emphasis on what we can control."

South African teams have said this before, usually with a touch of irritation in the tone and then we, as the listeners, knew it was getting to them and they, the opposition, knew which buttons to push.

Now, there's a neutrality to the conversation. South Africa acknowledge their embarrassing defeats like the one against Netherlands and own their errors. It's the best way to make sure those mistakes don't come back to own them.