South Africa's fast bowlers are the baddest men in the whole World Cup town, badder than old King Kong, meaner than junkyard dogs.

But at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday, they will come tooth to tooth with the same bristling breed when they take on Pakistan.

"There's not a lot of bowlers who consistently get it up over 140 [km/h] and to have three in your side is a great thing," Ireland captain William Porterfield said wistfully on Tuesday.

He was describing his team's rough treatment by a SA attack studded with Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott. But he could just as easily have been talking about Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz and Rahat Ali, who pinned Zimbabwe's batsmen to the crease at the Gabba in Brisbane.

With Abbott's 4-21 leading the charge, Ireland were reduced to 48-5 in 10.2 overs before being euthanised for 210 in reply to SA's 411-4.

Asked if SA's batsmen could look forward to something similar, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq said: "That is the only way we can survive. If your batting is not clicking, then you need to be really aggressive in your fielding and aggressive in your bowling. We are not getting many runs, but still we have to fight . So this is the way we have to approach the game."

Pakistan's win over Zimbabwe was their first of the tournament following defeats to India and West Indies.

"The bowlers just kept up the pressure, just kept taking wickets [against Zimbabwe], and that's the key in this World Cup," he said.

"Even if you are defending a low total, if you have bowlers who can take wickets you can really penetrate."

But he understood that, in cricket terms, the gulf in class between the batsmen of Zimbabwe and SA was much wider than the Limpopo that separates the countries on the map.

"If we want to win against SA and we really want to progress in this World Cup, we will have to come up with better batting performances," Misbah said.