Australia must stop South African No.3 Faf du Plessis from breaking a one-day international world record if they’re to ensure they take out the tri-series final in Harare on Saturday.

Du Plessis has scored three centuries already this tournament, and a fourth against Australia in the decider would hand him the outright all-time mark for most hundreds in an ODI series.

Whether it be World Cup campaigns or round robin events like this one, no batsman has ever scored more than three tons.

Should the 30-year-old once again reach triple figures, he would also join elite company as just the sixth player to ever score three consecutive hundreds in one-day internationals.

This all from a man who had a highest score of 72 from 50 ODIs before this tri-series began.

Du Plessis has already thwarted Australia once before in his career, when he saved the Adelaide Test in 2012 with a stunning 110 not out on debut.

But the right-hander is now in the form of his career, having smashed 106 and 126 against Australia and 121 against Zimbabwe.

His only failure was a 15 against the hosts in the second game.

Du Plessis has issued a stern warning to the Australians, adamant he’s yet to hit top gear.

“I am batting nicely but I’m definitely not on top of my game,” he said.

“I can improve a lot.

“I am enjoying the No.3 role. It suits me a lot more than when I am at No.6.

“What’s really important is when you’re in some sort of form you need to make sure you get big runs because it can change very quickly and 30 runs seems a long way away.

“I need to make sure I keep putting in big runs for this team.”

Du Plessis would join fellow South Africans Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock, and Pakistanis Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar as the only batsmen to ever put three hundreds back-to-back-to-back.

The only Australians to ever score three hundreds in a series were Mark Waugh and Matt Hayden – and du Plessis now has the chance to go one better.

Two years ago, du Plessis produced one of the gutsiest Test innings ever seen when he lasted out 376 balls to save a pivotal second Test against Australia.

Coming to the crease at 4-45, du Plessis went from 19 at stumps on day four to a brilliant hundred before stumps on the final day.

In the Test series in South Africa earlier this year, du Plessis earned the wrath of the Australian team by referring to them as being like “a pack of dogs.”