Twin hundreds from David Miller and Temba Bavuma, complemented by tidy spin bowling, ensured a sixth straight bilateral series win for South Africa over Australia, as they powered to a 32-run victory at Johannesburg.
A match-winning 156-run partnership between the centurions headlined the act after the hosts were put into bat and left stranded on 36-2 at the end of the seventh over.
A rearguard salvo from the skipper (103 off 116) and Matthew Breetzke steadied the ship, before Miller (142 off 93) took the game by the scruff of the neck.
The Aussies raced to another wicketless powerplay thanks to Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head piling on 84 runs each, but missing partnerships in the middle couldn't force the cause despite a late scare from Xavier Bartlett (50 off 28). Jack Edwards earlier bagged his maiden ODI fifer (10-0-67-5), the only saving grace in an otherwise familiar middle order slump.
As it reads, South Africa have a fearsome core ahead of the home World Cup next year, while there's tons to ponder for Australia on the drawing board, having slumped to their 13th defeat from the previous 15 ODI meetings with the Proteas.
Openers or bust for Australia
For the second time in as many matches, stand-in captain Marsh won the toss and put South Africa in. And on a crisp-looking Bullring wicket that got better under the cool sunshine, he brought his giant box of firecrackers once again.
The tormenting right-handed blitzed his way to a half-century off his 32 deliveries - his third from the last four one-dayers - and along with his partner-in-crime, Travis Head, the pair ransacked 130 for the opening wicket stand.
There was ample merit to play behind point as well as ride on the true bounce of the surface. And boy, did they bring their repertoire of shots square off the wicket.
There was always a sense of anticipation from the packed Wanderers crowd, regardless, that sending the openers back would automatically turn the tide in their favor. As it did in the first ODI too, there wasn't a single 50-run partnership until the one between Edwards and Bartlett, when the asking rate had already climbed to over 10 per over.
Five of Australia's top six batters extinguished from the trial of spin, even on an afternoon where the Proteas spinners missed their lengths or dropped the ball too short occasionally.
Bjorn Fortuin got one to skid off a perfect length to Marsh, while Head missed a sweep to find himself trapped in front of the wickets. Cameron Green's lean patch continued as he tried to force the pace with over 100 runs needed, and both Alex Carey and Matt Renshaw perished from Maharaj sliders - lbw.
South Africa boss the middle overs
In sharp contrast, Australia's spinners took a pounding, their combined figures making for grim reading with 16-0-133-0.
It proved a vital turning point in the fixture, as the South African batters not only negotiated the gaps to full extent but also put away the overpitched deliveries way back. On a day Miller has his eyes in, any slight error in length can travel; the southpaw sent nine sixes into the crowd.
It wasn't all doom and gloom early on, when Josh Hazlewood's gold-standard length balls prized the wickets off the returning Aiden Markram - off the very first ball of the innings, and Quinton de Kock. Bavuma was dropped on 33 by Edwards at the deep off a drag-down delivery from Adam Zampa.
While Miller and Bavuma struck at well over run-a-ball in the middle overs, Australia lost 121-6 in the middle overs. Marco Jansen continued his ominous form with the bat with a quick-fire 19 off 15, before his brother Duan took the onus of finishing the innings with an unbeaten 27.
Safe to say Australia have followed the T20 template of dominating the powerplay - with both bat and ball - but ODI cricket demands adjustments to its ebbs and flows. Winning the battle for 20 overs out of 100 is never quite enough.
