South Africa's success in winning seven out of nine ODIs against Australia this year has consigned Ricky Ponting's side to its lowest ranking in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship.
The four-time World champions are now third in the listing, behind not only the Proteas but also India, which has benefitted from Australia's loss in form to rise to second spot.
Third place and a tally of 121 points is Australia's lowest ranking and rating since the listings were launched in October 2002.
Remarkably, out of a total of 79 months since that date, Australia has held the top spot for 69 of those months, including 52 straight months at the top of the tree from October 2002 to January 2007.
India's placing is the highest it has achieved in the ODI rankings and complements its third place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship.
But despite that bad news for Australia and despite the fact that it is 3-1 down in the five-match series, the touring side still has a huge incentive in Friday's final match in Johannesburg.
Ponting's line-up, which moved to the top of the table after a 141-run victory in the first game of the series in Durban, will regain the number-two position if it wins at The Wanderers. And if Australia ends its tour on a winning note, it will rise to 123 ratings points, one ahead of India and three behind South Africa.
On the other side of the coin, if South Africa wins on Friday it will finish the series on 128 ratings points while Australia will head off to the United Arab Emirates to face Pakistan in a five-match ODI series in third place on 120 ratings points, trailing India by two.
The fact that these permutations are possible is great illustration of just how tight things are at the top of the table.
Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship (as of 15 April)
1. South Africa - 127
2. India - 122
3. Australia - 121
4. New Zealand - 112
5. Pakistan - 111
6. England - 108
7. Sri Lanka - 105
8. West Indies - 92
9. Bangladesh - 46
10. Zimbabwe - 23
11. Ireland - 19
12. Kenya - 00
