It might have been only a practice game, but for the Proteas any win over the Aussies is one to be treasured.
South Africa lost by five wickets to Australia at the 1999 World Cup, then agonisingly tied in the semifinals when Allan Donald and Lance Klusener got their calling mixed up.
The two did not meet in the 2003 tournament when South Africa, as hosts, were bundled out in a Duckworth-Lewis calculation bungle.
In the last World Cup, played in the Caribbean in 2007, Australia twice beat them, by 83 runs in the first round and by seven wickets in the semifinals.
The only victory for South Africa came in their first-ever World Cup game and there was one striking similarity with that 1992 win and the one on Tuesday in Bangalore.
In 1992, Allan Donald clearly had Australian opening batsman Geoff Marsh caught at slip with this first ball of the match. A stunned umpire turned down the appeals, but conceded his mistake afterwards. Nevertheless, South Africa went on to win by nine wickets.
On Tuesday, the umpire got it right in the first over the match from Dale Steyn when he trapped Shane Watson LBW.
Watson, currently Australia's best cricketer, had come out of a successful series against England and was in fine form. But not good enough to keep out Steyn's fourth ball.
Australia's dismissal for 217, made up largely by 158 from Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, was always an easy total to overhaul and South Africa turned it into a humiliation, with Graeme Smith walking off after he'd made 65, to be followed soon afterwards by Hashim Amla - just so that the other batsmen in the team could have a go.
During the South African innings, there were despairing appeals from Australia for LBW or caught behind, every one of them dismissed by the umpires.
The closest the Aussies got to a real wicket was the run out of Faf du Plessis.
Not that either team were making a big deal of the outcome.
"We're not reading too much into the fact that it was Australia that we beat, for us the warm-up matches were about gaining confidence and preparation ahead of the start of the tournament," said Amla. "It is always a boost to get a win but for the team it was about getting our processes right.
"The intensity of all three disciplines; batting, bowling and fielding, has been really high and we are satisfied with what we have achieved during the warm-up matches."
Australian vice-captain Clarke dismissed his team's disappointing form in the warm-up games after Australia also lost to India on Sunday.
"We all understand that they are practice games. It's more about giving the boys an opportunity than about winning," said Clarke.
"A practice game is a practice game. So it's important to maximise the chance to give everybody the opportunity to bat and bowl, and more importantly, to get used to the conditions."
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