AB de Villiers led from the front as he scored 81 and took five dismissals behind the stumps as South Africa beat West Indies by 61 runs on the D/L method.
De Villiers (81 off 94 balls, 6 fours) shared important partnerships of 99 for the third wicket with Hashim Amla (66 off 66 balls, 10 fours) after the loss of two early wickets and then 123 for the fourth wicket with David Miller (70 off 68 balls, 7 fours and 2 sixes) to give the Proteas a competitive total of 279/8 in 48.2 overs before the rain came down.

The West Indies were left with a target of 233 in 33 overs which was later reduced to 225 off 32 overs but once the Proteas had survived the initial onslaught from Chris Gayle (41 off 24 balls, 5 fours and 2 sixes) their bowlers always had the game under control.

Once Gayle was dismissed the West Indies lost 9 wickets for 113 runs with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir taking three wickets each. In the process Imran took his 50^th ODI wicket for the Proteas.

There was also a statistical highlight for Amla who completed 5 000 runs in this format and achieved this landmark in only his 101^st match. The previous record was jointly held by Sir Viv Richards and Virat Kohli who took 114 matches each. Amla also holds the record for the quickest to 2 000, 3 000 and 4 000 runs.

He and De Villiers are now averaging almost 80 runs for every partnership they have had together with 9 century stands and 8 50-run partnerships.

The second match in the series will be the Pink ODI which takes place at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Sunday.

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James Buttler

Editor at World Cricket Badger

James has been working as a journalist and broadcaster in cricket since 2006 and was an avid fan for many years before that.
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!

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