The Sydney rain in 1992, a run out and dropped catch in 1999, Grant Elliott's last-over charge in 2015 and the late collapse against India in Barbados in 2024.

All that hope, so often fancied to go all of the way, only for it to end in disappointment.

But are times changing?

First there was the World Test Championship win against Australia at Lord's last June and now, after seven wins from seven at this T20 World Cup, coach Shukri Conrad is happy to carry the tag of "favourites" going into a semi-final against New Zealand in Kolkata on Wednesday.

"I'm glad that we're favourites because I always felt that as a South African team, you want to be able to play as a favourite because it's easy being an underdog," Conrad said.

Is now the time, despite everything that has come before, to trust South Africa to go all of the way?