AB de Villiers struck a destructive 82-ball 99 and weighed in with two wickets as South Africa secured a place in the World Cup quarter-finals with a crushing 146-run victory over United Arab Emirates at the Wellington Regional Stadium.
The Proteas skipper led from the front again, starting patiently before advancing through the gears, but missed out on a fifth one-day international century in 25 innings when he slashed a wide Kamran Shazad delivery to short third man.
De Villiers shared a 108-run fourth-wicket stand with David Miller before Farhaan Behardien blasted 64 off just 31 deliveries to lift South Africa to 341 for six, maintaining their record of scoring 300-plus every time they had batted first in this tournament.
Although Swapnil Patil compiled an unbeaten 57, UAE were never in the hunt and managed only 195 as Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel matched de Villiers in snaring two scalps.
The win leaves the Proteas second in Pool B, two points behind group winners India and two above Pakistan and Ireland, who go head-to-head in their final group fixture on Sunday.
De Villiers and Miller were needed to help South Africa recover from a mini wobble that saw them slip to 96 for three in the 19th over.
Hashim Amla went cheaply, top-edging Mohammad Naveed after he was earlier struck by a beamer, out-of-form Quinton de Kock made 26 before he tickled Amjad Javed behind and Rilee Rossouw, promoted to number three in the absence of the injured Faf du Plessis, was caught and bowled by Mohammad Tauqir for 43.
De Villiers was tied down at the start of his innings but soon broke the shackles, hitting six fours and four maximums, taking his tally of sixes to a tournament-record 20.
Miller was bowled by Naveed one short of 50 and, after sharing a 53-run stand with JP Duminy, de Villiers departed.
Duminy became Naveed's third victim, trapped lbw for 23, before Behardien clubbed five fours and a trio of sixes to help South Africa take 101 off the final 10 overs.
Morkel hampered UAE's initial progress, taking two of the first three wickets to fall, but the Proteas then ran into some resistance from Shaiman Anwar and Patil.
The pair took their side into treble figures from 45 for three, their 63-run alliance ending when Anwar slog-swept Tahir to deep midwicket on 39.
But, despite Patil holding up one end, the UAE collapsed as de Villiers snared his two victims in as many individual overs to complete figures of 2-15 and Philander wrapped up the innings in the 48th over, with a knee injury preventing World Cup debutant Fahad Alhashmi from batting.