The Proteas are preparing to face Afghanistan on Friday in Ahmedabad in what will be their last round-robin game of the ICC Cricket World Cup before the semi-finals.

On the weekend the Proteas stumbled to their second defeat of the World Cup with a big 243-run defeat at the hands of the unbeaten hosts, India.

The defeat would best serve as a wake-up call to the Proteas who have had an outstanding tournament, but it will serve as a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted.

Marco Jansen - Cricinfo

Despite the defeat the Proteas coach, Rob Walter, said young players such as the left-arm seamer, Marco Jansen, would have learnt a lot, especially with the knockout matches looming.

“To be honest, it's a gift, isn't it?” said Walter.

“Being able to run out in front of 75 000 in a game like this and so many learning opportunities out there. Fortunately for us you know today wasn't a must-win fixture.

“It was just an opportunity to play against a really good team and yeah, he struggled today but as I said he's got the skill set to bounce back and be effective the next time around and what he does have now is the value of having already run out, competed, felt what it's like to be in a cauldron with 70 000 people cheering against you.

“You'll have that as experience that's invaluable - you can't get that anywhere else but here.”

Friday’s match between the Proteas and Afghanistan in Ahmedabad is scheduled to get underway at 10:30.

Steve Smith - Cricinfo

Meanwhile, on Tuesday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai the five-time champions, Australia, will be up against the dangerous Afghanistan.

The Aussies haven’t secured their spot in the semi-finals yet, and win today will most likely do the job for them.

However, Afghanistan are experiencing their best World Cup to date and they will stay in the hunt with a win.

Australia’s confidence will be up after their win on Saturday knocked the champions England out, but the batter Steve Smith warned that the Afghans cannot be taken lightly.

“I haven’t paid too much attention to the deficits, it’s just been about playing the games and yeah, we’ve had a couple of big wins which have been nice for us and for us it's just focusing on what we can do out in the middle.

“We've got a game here tomorrow against Afghanistan who are a dangerous side on their day and we certainly won't be taking them lightly.

“I think both sides have some quality spinners in particular, which I think the spinners have had pretty big impacts for most teams in those middle overs and we knew that coming into the World Cup that those middle overs batting is going to be crucial to negate the damage as much as possible, build foundations for the back end.

“It's going to be no different in the next couple of games against some quality spinners.”

Play in Mumbai will start at 10:30.

Angelo Mathews showing his broken helmet after his historic and controversial timed out dismissal - Cricinfo

On Monday the Tigers of Bangladesh secured a 3 wicket win against Sri Lanka in Delhi, to move up to 7th, but it was a little too late for them as they are already out of the tournament.

There was plenty of drama during the Sri Lanka batting innings as Angelo Matthews became the first-ever player in international cricket to lose his wicket through a time out.

Ultimately, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 279-runs, and the tigers chased down the total with 8.5 overs to spare.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport