South Africa saw off a spirited fightback from Afghanistan to win by five wickets in their final World Cup group game and consolidate second place in the standings.

South Africa have 14 points from their nine games, two points ahead of Australia who play Bangladesh on Saturday. Both South Africa and Australia have already qualified for the semifinals.

Afghanistan wrapped up their best ever World Cup campaign with four wins and also sealed a place in the Champions Trophy.

South Africa opener Quinton de Kock set up the chase of 244 scored by Afghanistan with a breezy 41 that took him to the top of the tournament's scoring charts on 591 runs.

Rassie van der Dussen (76 not out) then guided the Proteas home, stitching together a 65-run partnership with Andile Phehlukwayo, who smashed the winning runs with a massive six over deep mid-wicket in the 48th over.

Earlier, were bowled out for 244.

Afghanistan slipped to 116-6 before Azmatullah Omarzai hit an unbeaten 97 for a competitive total but not enough for the huge victory margin that the team required.

Gerald Coetzee took four wickets while spinner Keshav Maharaj returned impressive figures of 2-25 as the Proteas tune-up for their semi-final clash with five-time winners Australia next week.

Quinton de Kock played a key part with his six wicketkeeping dismissals to equal a World Cup record of Australia's Adam Gilchrist (v Namibia - Potchefstroom, 2003) and Pakistan's Sarfaraz Ahmed (v South Africa - Auckland, 2015).

Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran started aggressively before Maharaj struck with his first ball to have Gurbaz caught out for 25.

Coetzee sent back Ibrahim in the next over to check the batting surge and Afghanistan slipped from 41-0 to 45-3 when Maharaj had skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi caught behind for two.

Rahmat Shah attempted to rebuild in a 49-run stand with Azmatullah but fell to fast bowler Lungi Ngidi for 26.

Afghanistan lost two more wickets to be in danger of getting bowled out in less than their quota of 50 overs but Azmatullah stood firm to play out the innings.

He put on key stand with Rashid Khan (14) and then Noor Ahmad (26) to thwart the opposition bowling.

Azmatullah, 23, hit his ODI best but missed out on a ton after he just managed a single run in the final over that ended with a run out.