Both teams will return to the Kensington Oval this weekend on the back of convincing wins on the first day’s play in the second round here on Thursday, with South Africa beating New Zealand by 13 runs and England defeating defending champions Pakistan by six wickets.
It was just over a week ago that England beat South Africa by five wickets in a warm-up match in Barbados but Smith believes his Proteas are now starting to come of age.
“Every game in this competition is now crucial. They (England) will have the confidence but we faced them in a warm-up game so we have a pretty good idea how we’d like to play against them,” Smith said.
“We’ve been searching for the right combination and we certainly started a little rusty in this tournament,” Smith admitted.
“The platform was there for Albie, the guys up front had done a really good job setting up the game. It was nice to back him and to see him play a knock like that was terrific.”
“It was nice to perform for your country and I was pleased to come in and play an innings under pressure during a World Cup,” Morkel said.