The Proteas are geared to face Afghanistan tomorrow in what will be their last round-robin game at the ICC Cricket World Cup ahead of their big semi-final against Australia.

The Proteas will face the Afghans in Ahmedabad and it’s the first time they will play at the venue and while the game has no bearing whatsoever on the semi-finals, it gives them an opportunity to assess the conditions.

The final of the World Cup will be played at the same venue next week Sunday.

Photo: Shubnum Gill - Cricinfo

In addition, the Proteas' heavy defeat against India in Kolkata also had some positives, and one of those is that it’s where their semi-final against Australia will be played next week Wednesday.

The Proteas bowling coach, Eric Simons, said that this is a big advantage and allows them to plan accordingly.

“We've learnt a lot of lessons about the conditions and we've been very fortunate that we played that match at the semi-final venue, or certainly looks like it is going to be,” said Simons.

“And then we are going to be playing against Afghanistan at the venue for the final.

“We'll try and gather as much information as we can, but certainly from our side it's very much positive in terms of what it says about the way we've played, but also the way we gather information to plan for the matches going forward.”

Friday’s match in Ahmedabad gets under way at 10:30.

Meanwhile, on Thursday in Bengaluru, the Black Caps of New Zealand will be in action against the Lions of Sri Lanka.

This is a must-win game for the 2015 and 2019 runners-up if they are to have any chance of claiming the fourth and last spot up from grabs in the semi-finals.

Photo: Kane Williamson - Cricinfo

The Black Caps will also bank on South Africa beating Afghanistan tomorrow, while it will also be preferable if the outgoing champions, England can beat Pakistan at Eden Gardens.

There is also some weather around and the New Zealand skipper, Kane Williamson, said it’s up to them to control what they can.

“I mean you naturally want to win as many as you can,” said Williamson.

“We did start off well in terms of those results, but there were also some really close games and ones that we lost.

“I think if we look at the cricket as a whole, there has been a lot of good cricket and we've seen a lot of teams here playing really good cricket and coming into it we knew that anybody can beat anybody and we've certainly seen that.

“There's been so many, every team's won a few. And so, yeah, I mean, it's just trying to focus on our cricket and try and put out better performances and I guess that's sort of the beauty of this type of layout is that you do play everybody, you are challenged by everybody in different ways, so the focus is much more about your own cricket and how you look to try and handle that.”

Weather permitting, play in Bengaluru is set to start at 10:30.

On Wednesday, England won their second game with a 160-run victory against the Netherlands in Pune.

England scored 339/9 in their 50 overs with Ben Stokers scoring 108 runs, while Bas de Leede took 3/71.

In reply, the Dutch were bundled out for 179 runs in 37.2 overs, with the spin-twins Moeen Ali taking 3/43 and Adil Rashid taking 3/54.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport Corné