A crucial 40-run partnership between Marcus Stones and Matthew Wade helped South Africa beat South Africa by five wickets in a low-scoring thriller in their first Super 12 clash at the T20 World Cup on Saturday.
Stoinis and Wade brilliantly kept their nerves intact for the sixth wicket as Australia surpassed their 119-run target and won with two balls to spare.
In reply to South Africa's 118 for nine, Australia lost three quick wickets at the top and put themselves under pressure with some perfect bowling.
Steve Smith (35) and Glenn Maxwell (42 for the fourth wicket) kept Australia afloat, but South Africa reduced their opposition to 61-5 with four balls to spare. .
But Steinis contributed 24 off 16 balls and Wade contributed 15 off South Africa's chances.
Australia captain Aaron Finch said: "It was quite stressful. Obviously you're always going to be nervous whenever you're chasing Mote and it's coming down the wire."
"But Marcus Steinis showed a really cool head there, Matty Wade was also able to hold our line. I think a little experience at the backend of the innings could do that."
The six Test playing nations in Group One, Australia and South Africa - both of which have never won a tournament before - were desperate to get off to a winning start in the opening match of the Super 12 season.
After winning the toss at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, the Australian bowlers responded to Finch's call first.
Australia have made a bold call to drop left-arm spinner Ashton Agar - their top Twenty20 international bowler - but Finch had enough power to keep South Africa on the backfoot from the start.
After Maxwell's part-time off-spin surpassed the defense of South African captain Temba Baumara, pacer Josh Hazlewood took two wickets with a slight bounce of extra bounce to take the opposition to 32 for three.
South Africa could not recover from a shaky start and Australia picked up wickets at regular intervals, they never threatened to post big scores.
Aiden Markram's 40 off 36 balls and Kagiso Rabada's unbeaten 19 helped the Proteas cross the 100-run mark.
The reigning champions West Indies will face South Africa on Tuesday, two days before Australia face Sri Lanka.
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