An obstinate character at the best of times, the grizzled veteran is confronting what is potentially his World Cup swansong tonight against one of the title favourites at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.
The 35-year-old allrounder surely cannot hang around until the next World Cup in another four years, making the eliminator, in all likelihood, the last time he will have the chance to have a say in front of a worldwide audience.
Normally never short of a word, Styris' sharpened competitiveness, honed through 186 one-day internationals, borders on cussedness, a quality the New Zealanders will want in spades against a super-confident South African outfit stacked with world beaters and determined to bury the ghosts of teams past and secure their country's first World Cup title.
By his own lofty standards, Styris has had a quiet tournament, with just 69 runs at an average of 17.25 and four wickets in a light workload of 26.4 overs.
Coach John Wright has already signalled he wants Styris to be more involved tonight, with a shift into the top five of the batting order looming at the expense of James Franklin.
His medium-paced deliveries should also get a solid workout on a pitch expected to favour the spinners and help blunt South Africa's vaunted fast bowling attack headed by Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
New Zealand's cause will be helped by the return of captain Daniel Vettori, its best bowler who missed the last two group matches due to a knee injury, while it will also hope that savvy seamer Kyle Mills has overcome a quadriceps injury to take his place for a must-win match.
The experience of these two alone will be a boost in conditions that could well see the selectors include batsman Kane Williamson principally due to his ability to provide five overs of offspin to add to the slow bowling overs of Vettori and Nathan McCullum.
The Mirpur track is expected to hold up, meaning batting fluency should be difficult and the New Zealanders could look to complete 25 of their overs with their slow bowlers, leaving Tim Southee, Jacob Oram and possibly Mills, plus Styris, to complete the remainder.
But anything less than its best and New Zealand will be rushing towards the World Cup exit, and even then, South Africa at its best will arguably account for Vettori's inconsistent side nine times out of 10.
South Africa, with a line-up oozing class with the likes of Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, captain Graeme Smith, Steyn and Morkel topped group B, losing only to England and completing its group commitments by overwhelming Bangladesh by 206 at the venue being used tonight.
New Zealand, by comparison, has been its normal up-and-down self, finishing fourth in group A after losing heavily to Australia and Sri Lanka, either side of a fine win over Pakistan, and anticipated victories over minnows Kenya, Canada and Zimbabwe.
But the Black Caps have not announced themselves as genuine title contenders and Wright has not been able to hide his frustration.
"It's frustrating when you see the same errors repeated over and over again," he said after the comprehensive loss to Sri Lanka in Mumbai last weekend.
"You must learn from your mistakes and that's all I want, really."
Too true. If the mistakes of the past month are not corrected tonight, the New Zealanders will have plenty of time to ponder their inadequacies.
New Zealand (possible): Daniel Vettori (captain), Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Kane Williamson, Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee.
South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Francois du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk.
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Rod Tucker (Australia).
