An unbeaten stand of 40 by Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade saw Australia to a five-wicket win over South Africa in the opening match of the Super 12s of the T20 World Cup on Saturday.

Chasing a modest 119 for victory, Australia were in trouble at 81-5 after Steve Smith (35 off 34 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (18 off 21) departed in Abu Dhabi.

But Stoinis (24* off 16) and Wade (15* off 10) stood firm, with Stoinis hitting the winning boundary to take Australia over the line with two balls to spare.

Anrich Nortje took two wickets – including skipper Aaron Finch, for nought, and Smith – to return figures of 2-21 and make Australia work for their runs.

Tabraiz Shamsi dismissed Maxwell as the batsman’s attempted reverse hit ended with the ball crashing into the stumps.

Earlier, pace bowler Josh Hazlewood took 2-19 to help limit South Africa to 118-9 after the Aussies elected to bowl first.

No 4 Aiden Markram played a lone hand with his 40 off 36 deliveries before falling to Mitchell Starc.

Markram kept losing partners, with Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller departing for 13 and 16 respectively.

Leg spinner Adam Zampa struck twice in one over and a big mid-pitch mix-up led to Keshav Maharaj being run out for nought.

Kagiso Rabada hit an unbeaten cameo of 20 off 23 balls to take the Proteas past 100.