Graeme Smith showered praise on his bowlers after they helped set South Africa up for a series-levelling win over Australia.

Wayne Parnell was named man of the match after he ran through the visitors' top-order and eventually finished with career-best figures of four for 26, while Dale Steyn claimed four for 27 as the Australians were dismissed for 131 in 40.2 overs.

"It was a good outing for us"

Smith then led his side home, top-scoring with 40 to help the Proteas reach their target with more the 23 overs to spare to win by seven wickets in the second one-day international in Pretoria.

It was a good response from the hosts after they were themselves embarrassed with a 141-run defeat two days ago.

"I think Friday we were outplayed, we knew that and we knew were capable of it," said the South Africa captain afterwards.

"I thought we really prepared well for Friday and we just let ourselves down.

"Today we wanted to put in a better performance and I think the bowlers really took responsibility for that.

"Parnell deserves all the success"

"We bowled first, they got the ball in the right areas and led by Wayne and Dale, it was great. And everyone else backed it up really well.

"So it was a good outing for us. We just wish that we started like this on Friday. But it was nice to come out and hit our straps today."

Smith was also pleased for Parnell, who was playing in just his second ODI.

He continued: "I think he's been working really well. He's a young guy with a lot of potential and he showed that today.

"I'm really excited for him and he deserves all the success. As he knows, there's still a long road going forward and hopefully he can build up to another exciting performance on Thursday."

Ponting disappointed

Australia captain Ricky Ponting was predictably disappointed with his side, saying the blame should be on his top order after they were skittled for their third lowest total ever batting first in ODI cricket, having twice before scored 101.

"I think it was generally bad batting from us. We knew that the ball would swing a little bit this morning, but it wasn't as if it was swinging around corners," he said.

"Early the wicket was very good. I just think there were some poor shots today from the top-order players in particular and they exposed our middle order to the new ball.

"It's just been something that we haven't been consistent with of late and that's an area that we need to improve on if we want to win the series."

On the overall performance, he added: "It was as bad as we've played in a long time.

"We don't need wholesale changes, we just need the current guys to play a better.

"I'm exactly in the same boat, it's a while since I made a hundred in one-day cricket, so we need to get a lot more consistency out of us for the remainder of the series."