Brett Lee declared himself back to his rhythmic, rocket-like best after ripping through South Africa's batting to spearhead Australia's 24-run win in the third one-day international.
Man-of-the-match Lee took 4-48 from his nine overs as Australia grabbed its first win on tour to keep the five-match series alive.
Inspired by the return of skipper Ricky Ponting (62) from a stomach muscle injury, Australia snatched back some momentum from Graeme Smith's Proteas heading into the final two games on Friday in Durban and Sunday in Johannesburg.
"I felt like the rhythm hasn't quite been there the last couple of games," said Lee, who took 0-59 and 1-51 in Australia's losses in the first two ODIs.
There are few more frightening sights in world cricket than Lee bowling at over 150km/h and the NSW speedster was around that pace on Sunday in a lively display that will encourage the Australians ahead of the first Test starting in Cape Town on March 16.
"I worked pretty hard in the nets working off my long run," Lee said.
"There's times there where you go for a couple of games without getting a wicket but I felt like the pace was certainly back there today.
"I bowled a bit of a fuller length today and the wickets came."
Sunday's victory came on the heels of Friday's dismal 196-run defeat in Cape Town when Australia was bowled out for just 93, its fourth-lowest score ever, losing by 196 runs.
It was Lee who made the key breakthrough by removing South African captain Graeme Smith for 10.
Australia made 6-254 then bowled out the Proteas for 230 in 47.2 overs.
South Africa had progressed to 2-60 before Shane Watson sparked a collapse of 3-9.
Watson had Boeta Dippenaar (16) lbw and eight runs later a fired-up Lee dismissed Mark Boucher (5) caught behind.
Justin Kemp (0) fell to Stuart Clark before Shaun Pollock (69) and AB De Villiers (68) piled on 119 for the sixth wicket.
Watson finally bowled Pollock in the 43rd over.
De Villiers, after making his maiden half-century, threw his wicket away next over when Brad Hogg held a screamer overhead at long-on.
Lee quickly removed Andrew Hall and Robin Peterson but Roger Telemachus hit 29 off 13 balls, taking 20 runs off one over from Lee including two big sixes.
Telemachus fell lbw to Nathan Bracken in the 48th over, bringing a hush to the sell-out crowd of 16,584 who had been cheering his every move.
Ponting became the ninth player to pass the 9,000-run milestone. Damien Martyn (51) and Simon Katich (49) returned to form after struggling earlier in the series.
Opener Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke each made 25.
Mike Hussey belted 22 from 10 balls, helping Australia score 4-84 in the final 10 overs.
Ponting said all-rounder Andrew Symonds was likely to return for Durban after missing the opening three matches with a hip flexor strain.
"We've got almost a week before the next game. That should be plenty of time for Andrew to be 100 percent fit," Ponting said.
"He was very close to being right today."