Dale Steyn shone with the bat on his return to one-day international cricket on Wednesday, helping South Africa avoid humiliation in the second one-day international against Zimbabwe at the Mangaung Oval.
Steyn top-scored with a career-best 60 in a South African total of 198.
The veteran fast bowler came in to bat with South Africa reeling at 101 for seven.
He and Andile Phehlukwayo (28) added 75 for the eighth wicket, a record for South Africa against Zimbabwe, and Steyn went on to take the hosts past their all-time low of 185 against the neighbouring country.
"It's nice to get us out of a precarious situation," Steyn told SuperSport television as he left the field after he was last man out.
"I thought 200-220 would have been a nice score, when Andy and I were batting. We planned on batting five overs at a time. 198, we have to take it. We're there or thereabouts but we're going to have to bowl well."