Proteas taking confidence from Australia ODI series win

The two sides head into the third and final match in Potchefstroom tomorrow, with South Africa holding an unassailable 2-0 lead and eyeing a series whitewash.

Maharaj says while the tournament is still a year away, it’s more of a psychological victory to beat a quality team as part of their preparations.

"Yeah it's obviously important you wanna try to be as clinical as possible in a series of this magnitude. They are the world champions so it's always nice to build confidence, yes it is probably over 12 months away from the actual World Cup but it's a wonderful stepping stone and foundation to build on,” Maharaj said. 

“It shows character, also it shows champion mentality to try and get this series 3-0 but it's about the process that we are focusing on behind everything and letting it play out that way. 

“Just sort of doing the basics really well, obviously there's areas where we can improve and areas and areas that we can keep building on. So, you know if we can execute that then hopefully we come on the right side of things."

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While much attention has been on the weakened pace attack with a few of them out with injury, the spinners surprisingly found a lot of turn in both Durban and Johannesburg, with Maharaj returning impressive bowling figures of 4/20 at an economy of 2.14 at his home ground in the first ODI.

He says this is not necessarily an indication of how the wickets will behave in a year’s time.

"Look, the World Cup is a long way away, so it's hard to say. I think conditions do change as the year goes on through and it would be interesting to see what happens next year come the World Cup,” he added.