South Africa and New Zealand will measure their respective credentials for the ICC World Twenty20 crown on Tuesday.

Until now every match in the 17-day event has counted towards qualification for the next stage, but tomorrow's encounter at Lord's is the first between two sides who have already qualified for the Super Eights.

Their respective emphatic victories against Scotland over the weekend already sealed their progress, leaving them with little to play for but an indication of how they compare against another leading side in the tournament.

Watch the highlights of the New Zealand-Scotland game

"We've played against New Zealand enough in this format and the one-day format to know they're really competitive," said South Africa captain Graeme Smith.

"Everyone contributes in their team, they are well led and on their day they can pretty much challenge everybody and beat everybody.

"We will respect them like we would any other opponent but we will sit down and come up with a few tactical things for that game and try to implement them."

South Africa's strength in depth was underlined during their 130-runs triumph over Scotland, when AB de Villiers hammered 79 off 34 balls and helped add 83 from the final five overs.

They then showed the great versatility in their bowling line-up with Dale Steyn claiming two early wickets before spinners Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe grabbed two wickets apiece.

Relive the ICC World Twenty20 in Facebook

"From a performance perspective for us over the last nine months to a year, Johan has bowled incredibly well in this format and the one-day format," enthused Smith.

"They are not using all the surfaces at the grounds, so the more the pitches are played on, the more the spinners will come into play. As the wickets get more used, pace off the ball will be more of an advantage, I think."

New Zealand, who overcame Scotland in a rain-affected game restricted to seven overs, have problems with their main spin threat as captain Daniel Vettori is struggling with a shoulder problem which kept him out of the opening match.

Click here for cricket alerts

Vettori is not expected to feature against South Africa having not bowled for several days, but New Zealand are keen to continue their momentum for the latter stages of the tournament.

"We've spoken about keeping the momentum going and we'd like to carry that forward into the Super Eights," revealed New Zealand coach Andy Moles.

"It's a good opportunity to get a really tough, competitive match practice before we move onto the next stage and it's come at just the right time."

Watch the highlights of the South Africa-Scotland game

New Zealand's hopes of making even further progress in the tournament have already been lifted by Ireland qualifying ahead of Bangladesh in their half of the Super Eights stage.

They could also face Holland in the next stage as well if Pakistan are unable to beat them by a big enough margin in tomorrow's crunch match at Lord's.

Samsung LED TV Cricket Widget

"We believe when we can play well we can beat anybody, but statistically if Holland were in our group that would be easier," added Moles.

"They showed by beating England, though, that any team can win a game on its day."

Approaching milestones
 
- Graeme Smith (398) needs two runs to become the first batsman to aggregate 400 runs as captain in Twenty20 Internationals.
 
Head to Head
 
- New Zealand have won 9 and lost 11 out of 22 contested in Twenty20 Internationals (2 Tied) - winning % 40.91.
 
- South Africa have won 12 and lost 7 out of 19 contested in Twenty20 Internationals - winning % 63.16.
 
- South Africa and New Zealand have played against each other three times.  New Zealand won the first encounter by 5 wickets at Johannesburg on October 21, 2005 but went on to lose the next two - by 6 wickets at Durban on September 19, 2007 and by 3 wickets at Johannesburg on November 23, 2007.