South Africa and World Cups have had a difficult relationship. So it's best not to get into the will-they-or-won't-they-this-time weeds. As in win one of the damn things already. Besides, predictions are as tedious as comparisons and exponentially more irrelevant.

Nonetheless, an unusual feeling has permeated the game in the country. Maybe because South Africa reached the final of the last T20 World Cup. Maybe because they aren't expected to do that well this time. Maybe because the focus is squarely on winning the 2027 World Cup. Maybe because we're still smiling about the SA20: the crowd at the first match of West Indies' T20I tour at Boland Park on Tuesday was smaller than for four of Paarl Royals' five home games.

Whatever it is, South Africa are on their way to India under no pressure. At least, not from the outside. Their cricket-minded compatriots appear to have made peace with the likelihood that they won't come home with the trophy. Thing is, much the same feeling prevailed when they went to Lord's last June to play Australia in the WTC final...

Here they go again, not so much on a wing and a prayer as on a wing and a purr. As in an engine clicking through its gears apparently effortlessly and quietly overcoming obstacles as it goes.

David Miller and Lungi Ngidi have sailed through groin and knee issues. Quinton de Kock looks like he's never enjoyed playing cricket as much as he does now. Dewald Brevis is growing into the player he has the potential to become. Kagiso Rabada is bowling as well as ever, albeit he doesn't have the numbers to prove it.

They beat the Windies convincingly in Paarl and Centurion to seal the series, and fell short by six runs in what was, despite the dead rubber, a thoroughly enjoyable 10-over shootout - complete with a spectacular lightning show - at the Wanderers on Saturday. Had Miller been fit they might well have won that, too.

Aiden Markram was on course for a century in the first match but ran out of available target, 14 runs short of three figures. That didn't happen to de Kock in Centurion on Thursday, when he almost languidly launched 115 off 49 using a bat he had to borrow from Brevis after forgetting his own at home in Knysna. Brevis had a lowkey series, facing only 16 balls for 21 runs in his two innings. But his 56-ball 101 against an attack that bristled with Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje in the SA20 final at Newlands last Sunday will shimmer in the memory for a long time.

That Keshav Maharaj was the leading wicket-taker in the Windies series is no bad thing for a side heading to Asia. Neither that George Linde was the only bowler in the rubber to go for less than a run a ball.

Markram needs to be behind a firmly shut dressingroom door before he leaps into inspirational mode, profanity and all. Doubtless that will happen at the DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. It's only a warm-up game, but there is nothing "only" about any match against India. For now, South Africa's captain is moderating his language severely.

"We can take quite a bit of confidence [out of the West Indies series]," Markram told a press conference after Saturday's game. "Throughout the SA20 as well the guys put their hands up for their teams and won games, which is what you need at a World Cup."

Shouldn't you be excited already, skipper?

"Yes, it is a World Cup but you don't want to blow it out of proportion. You've got a job to do, and if you can get yourself into a frame of mind to do that job well I think we give ourselves a good chance."

Besides, Markram didn't have to make plain - and like it says in paragraph one above - South Africa and World Cups have had a difficult relationship. Hence let's not get ahead of ourselves. But we can look forward to "Dewald and Stubbo and myself bowling, and if conditions really allow we'll have a role to play" with the ball.

Markram is a regular part-time off-spinner, if such a thing is possible. But just 27 deliveries of Stubbs' offies have been seen in more than a year. Brevis has sent down 29.2 overs of leg spin in the past dozen months. It will be interesting, and not a little fun, to see them cope with bowling at this level if and when the need arises.

Then there's Jason Smith, who like Markram and Rabada was part of the squad that won the 2014 under-19 World Cup. Unlike Markram and Rabada, who have since played 205 and 251 senior internationals across the formats, Smith, now 31, has appeared in only three ODIs and five T20Is with limited success. But he has developed into a player who can, without scoring 50s and centuries, make a game lurch forward dramatically. Like he did on Saturday, when he took guard with South Africa having lost Ryan Rickelton and Brevis in the space of three deliveries. They were 63/4 after six needing 62 off 24. Smith hammered 26 of them off 10.

"That's the role you give to a guy like that," Markram said. "He's going to walk in late in the innings, when it's not easy to hit balls out of the park. But he's got that ability and that potential, and that's exactly why he's in our squad. He kept [Saturday's] game alive for us and nearly got us over the line."

Getting over the line when it matters is something South Africa struggled to do before that shining day at Lord's in June. Maybe that's really why this feels different. And maybe that's why it might indeed be different this time.