7th time lucky?

New Zealand will hope it's a case of seventh time lucky when they face South Africa at Auckland's Eden Park on Tuesday, as all six of their previous World Cup semi-finals have ended in defeat.

Below AFP Sport looks back at the Black Caps' litany of last-four woes:

The Oval in 1975

New Zealand 158 (G Howarth 51; B Julien 4-27) lost to the West Indies 159-5 (A Kallicharran 72, G Greenidge 55) by 5 wkts

Old Trafford in 1979

New Zealand 212-9 (J Wright 69) lost to England 221-8 (G Gooch 71, M Brearley 53) by 9 runs

Auckland in 1992

New Zealand 262-7 (M Crowe 91, K Rutherford 50) lost to Pakistan 264-6 (Inzamamul Haq 60, Javed Miandad 57 no) by 4 wkts

Old Trafford in 1999

New Zealand 241-7 lost to Pakistan 242-1 (Saeed Anwar 113 no, Wajahatullah Wasti 84) by 9 wkts

Kingston in 2007

New Zealand 208 (M Muralidaran 4-31) lost to Sri Lanka 289-5 (M Jayawardene 115 no, U Tharanga 73) by 81 runs

Colombo in 2011

New Zealand 217 (S Styris 57) lost to Sri Lanka 220-5 (T Dilshan 73, K Sangakkara 54) by 5 wkts