Dale Steyn looks certain to make a timely return to the South Africa side ahead of their crunch Champions Trophy Group &lsquo;B&rsquo; meeting with the West Indies in Cardiff. <img alt="Dale Steyn" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/jun/Dale-Steyn_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 689px;" /> Dale Steyn. PIC/Getty Images Key fast bowler Steyn has played no part in the tournament to date after suffering a side strain in the warm-up defeat to Pakistan. But the 29-year-old appears ready to be unleashed for the winner-takes-all battle for a semi-final berth. Captain AB de Villiers said: &ldquo;He bowled at a hundred per cent intensity yesterday, and it was sort of the first part of his fitness assessment and today he&rsquo;s doing a bit more. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s 99.9 per cent ready, but we&rsquo;re just going to make sure this afternoon that he&rsquo;ll be ready to go.u00a0&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost a yes, just not yet. We have just got to wait a few hours and then we&rsquo;ll make the final call this afternoon, but it&rsquo;s looking good.&rdquo; The weather looks certain to have some sort of say in Cardiff, with sporadic showers ensuring the middle was under cover for much of yesterday. <img alt="AB de Villiers" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/jun/AB-de-Villiers.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 573px;" /> AB de Villiers A shortened game would appear to play into the hands of West Indies, given their station as World Twenty20 champions, although the Proteas hold the advantage in terms of net run-rate should the conditions prevent a result. But De Villiers is confident his side will be able to cope with whatever is thrown at them. &ldquo;Whether we play a shortened game or a normal game, it&rsquo;s all about focus and team intensity off the field,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No matter what happens, the rain is out of our control, so we&rsquo;ll focus on good cricket whether it&rsquo;s a 20-over game or a 50-over game.u00a0&ldquo;We still rate ourselves as a serious cricket team in whatever format we play and however many overs we play in. I feel we&rsquo;ve got a bit of momentum behind us at the moment. We play really good cricket, and that intensity I often talk about is really spot on at the moment. Despite their undoubted quality, South Africa have not won an ICC event since 1998, enduring a number of near misses, particularly at World Cups. &lsquo;No pressure is on us&rsquo; And West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo believes the tag of being &ldquo;chokers&rdquo; puts all the pressure on Gary Kirsten&rsquo;s team, despite the Windies&rsquo; last ODI win over the Proteas coming in 2006. He said: &ldquo;I think the South Africans will feel the pressure also. They know if they lose, they are going back home. They have a tag of being chokers that do not do well in big tournaments, so that would be added pressure on them. &ldquo;For us, we&rsquo;re going to enjoy the occasion and forget about what happens in previous games. It&rsquo;s a tournament. It&rsquo;s a knockout game. We&rsquo;ve been in this situation before and do well and go beyond. So, no pressure is on us. I&rsquo;m not worried about the record of the previous games. I&rsquo;m really excited and looking forward to this game tomorrow.&rdquo;u00a0

Pacer's presence against WI will boost SA's hopes of qualifying for semis, feels AB de Villiers

Steyn set to return against West Indies today

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Steyn set to return against West Indies today

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