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Full-Strength South Africa up against in form New Zealand

Edgbaston, Kingsmead, Dhaka, Eden Park. Throw in St. Lucia and Trent Bridge while you're at it. These have been the scenes of South Africa's great heartbreaks over the past two decades, places that will forever linger in the minds of the players who experienced the anguish.

Eden Park was the most recent, the venue where South Africa lost a World Cup semifinal to New Zealand in an agonisingly close and drama-filled game that swung one way and then the other. As Faf du Plessis said upon South Africa's arrival in Auckland this week, "something like that, you'll always carry it with you".

South Arica, then, are a team with baggage. They don't travel light. But at the moment they are also a team with purpose, and if they direct that energy towards exacting some small revenge in Friday's one-off Twenty20 at Eden Park, they will certainly make a formidable opposition. Victory in a match that is largely devoid of context will not exorcise the ghosts, but it will exercise some jet-lagged bodies and set the tone for the tour.

South Africa recently lost a Twenty20 series at home to Sri Lanka, but that should not be seen as a guide to their form given that the majority of their top players were rested for the series. A better indicator is the 11 straight wins in ODI cricket, a ruthless run that has seen them flex their might in the limited-overs game.

Of course South Africa may be strong, but New Zealand are clever. They are a small island with only a few million people but they compete with everybody else because they work out ways to make the most of their resources. While they are also short on silverware from major tournaments, they rarely bomb out and they went further in last year's World Twenty20 than South Africa.

So far they have won every home game this summer, beating Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia when the rain has allowed them. The team is gelling under Kane Williamson as he comes up to the anniversary of his coronation as captain.

They also have some promising youngsters coming through in the shorter formats with an opportunity to stake their claim for the future. As South Africa know all too well, the past can not be erased. What matters is how you use it to shape what is to come.